Harry Potter and the Jedi Wizard - Part 1: The Philosopher's Stone
by The Black Widow1
Summary: What would the Harry Potter saga be like, if one of Harry's school friends was a Muggle-Born, AND a Jedi's Padawan Learner? Read on to find out, this story was inspired when I was reading Breanie's "A Different Beginning" and John William's "Duel of the Fates" started playing in my media player. Please enjoy and R&R.
1. Discovering Magic

**Disclaimer: Since I'm uploading and posting the whole story at once, I'm going to save some time and just put one disclaimer. That being said, I own nothing and whatever I DO own, I'm trying to sell on eBay.**

 **This is a re-posting of my series, I'll be posting the rest as I work on improving them. The reason I've tried to improve my work is because of one individual who has the audacity to call themselves a human being. I said before and I'll say again, I can accept a flame as a review, as long as it's CONSTRUCTIVE, but one person who clearly can't read (if you're reading again, you know who you are), wrote nine paragraphs on what was wrong with my work, one paragraph even began with "Now, back to complaining", a review like that could cause an author to delete their work and never write again, and I was nearly one such author.**

 **That being said, please read and enjoy my work. And if you feel anything is wrong with it, feel free to suggest ways to improve it, I'm not opposed to some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.**

 **Chapter 1 – Discovering Magic**

On a bright and sunny day, in mid June, a navy blue taxi pulled up in front of a huge white building with large statues flanked around its perimeter, each statue depicted a great leader of the past, either in a thoughtful or heroic pose.

Robed figures of all ages, walked or ran to and fro, some of the children playing a simple game of tag, others were simply late for a lesson, while sometimes an adult would call out a name and tell the child not to run on the stone steps.

Stepping out of the taxi, a ten year old boy thanked his driver and paid the fair while the lady passed him his suitcase and patted him gently on his shoulder before she got back in her car and drove away, looking for another passenger.

The boy looked up at the building that has been his home for the past seven years, the headquarters of the Jedi Order, the London Temple. "It's good to be home," he mused dryly and began to climb the steps, his head hung low.

As he walked up the steps various people noticed him, they called his name, some cheerfully, others cautiously, they all knew he was feeling down, but they went about talking to him differently.

He just ignored all them, quietly growing angry that they weren't taking his silence as a hint.

"Andrew?" a new voice spoke to him as he stepped between the statues in the main archway, there were no doors here.

He couldn't ignore this voice, it belonged to his mentor, the closest thing he had to a father in this hallowed place. "How are you feeling?" the voice asked while placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Fine, Master," Andrew answered dryly, he looked up at his mentor, the tears in his eyes giving away his lie.

The kind face of Jedi Master Jarod Cooper looked down to him with sympathy. He carried a light scar along his left jaw and his shoulder-length ginger hair held a single white streak which he kept slicked back while the rest of his hair hung loosely around his neck. "Is there anything I can do?" Cooper asked his Padawan.

Andrew shook his head gently, his braid, the mark of his rank as a Padawan, dropped off his shoulder to dangle around his chest. His eyes drifted to the floor. "Not really, Master. I think I need to be alone for a while."

"I understand, I know this is hard for you. You're still young, so it's still hard for you to process," Jarod said, giving Andrew a light pat on the shoulder. "Take all the time you need my young Padawan."

Andrew left his Master's side and headed for his room, knowing he would find solitude there.

"Um, hi Andrew," a timid, but familiar voice greeted, Andrew stopped and waited for his childhood friend to speak again. "Listen … I know you want to be left alone … but … if you ever want to talk … I'm here, okay?"

Andrew just nodded and walked away, if there was anyone that could understand him, especially now, it was Mel.

As he walked on, people kept on trying to get him to talk, he did his best to keep his frustration and tears at bay, but when Jonny Rozwell asked, "How was the funeral?" that was it, the tears just cascaded down his face and he ran for his room, fuming.

He got to his room, sobs escaping from his mouth, and slammed his door shut, before he got a chance to lock it though, every piece of glass shattered.

Andrew was so scared that his tears ceased almost instantly. The picture frame of his family was broken, thankfully the picture was intact, the television had exploded, his glass, which normally contained orange juice overnight, was in little pieces on his bed and his window was littering the flowerbed beneath it.

But before he could leave to tell Master Cooper, everything mended itself. "( _Okay,_ that _just happened_ ,)" Andrew said to himself. "( _But how?)_ "

 _One Month Later._

Jarod was just going about his daily routine, checking the progress on various assignments, marking written homework of the Younglings and so on.

"Master Cooper!" Mel called out to him; he stopped in the middle of the entrance hall of the temple and turned to her as she ran up to him, she had light chestnut-brown hair which was kept at shoulder length, as was the tradition for a female Padawan, however her braid was considerably longer, almost reaching her navel. Her eyes were almost an icy grey-blue and she stood at roughly three and a half feet.

"Yes Melanie, what is it?" Jarod asked, his soft forest green eyes showing no obvious emotion, he sensed that she was worried and had a feeling he knew what it was about.

"It's Andrew," she began. "He came home from his Great Grans funeral and he's understandably miserable, then from the next day onwards he seems fine? It took me ages to get over my family …" she'd started to ramble, but now she faltered "… dying," she almost whispered.

"But the circumstances are so much different young one," Jarod explained, dignifying the girl by not crouching down on his haunches. "His relative died from old age, your family were killed before their time, that makes a significant difference."

Mel was about to say something else, but her mouth hung open as Jarod heard a small pop behind him and several lightsabres igniting around him.

He turned, slowly and calmly, to see an old man, a _really_ old man. He sensed no danger coming from him and signalled the Knights and Padawans around him to put their weapons away.

This man seemed rather strange, he was tall and thin, he had silver hair and a matching beard, long enough to tuck into his belt, which they were. He was wearing long purple robes and a matching cloak, his boots were very similar to what most Jedi wore except for the buckles. His bright blue eyes seemed to twinkle from behind a pair of half-moon glasses and the poor man looked as though he'd been in a fight, for his nose was clearly broken in two places.

"Good morning, I am Albus Dumbledore," the man said politely. "Do you by any chance know a young man named Andrew Payne?"

"I am Jedi Master Jarod Cooper; might I ask what you want with my Padawan?" Jarod asked, he wanted to sound polite, but failed to keep the slight suspicion from his voice as his eyes narrowed a little.

"Ah, how fortunate that I should run into you first," Dumbledore said joyfully.

Jarod sensed no deception from the man, but he did sense that whatever Dumbledore had to say would be best said in private. "Melanie, please go and find Andrew. Tell him I wish to see him in my quarters in fifteen minutes," he said to Mel quietly and she ran off. "Please follow me Mr Dumbledore."

Dumbledore inclined his head and followed, soon they reached their destination and, after Jarod locked the door to prevent Andrew from just charging in, sat at a desk and talked.

Dumbledore explained about Andrew being a Wizard, capable of performing magic, he explained that wizards, witches and various magical creatures, such as phoenixes and unicorns, existed in secret, without the knowledge of muggles, non-magical people, knowing.

"So how do you explain my Padawan being a wizard?" Jarod asked, still sceptical. "Both of his parents, to my knowledge, and even all of his siblings are 'muggles'," Jarod asked, still slightly unconvinced.

"On rare occasions, though increasingly more often, we encounter what are known as 'muggle-borns'," Dumbledore answered. "Wizards and witches who have muggle parents, if Andrew has a younger brother or sister then I may well have to have this same conversation with Andrew's parents and sibling," Dumbledore explained calmly, as though he'd done this many times.

"You must understand sir that I need some form of proof, some guarantee that this is not a hoax," Jarod stated, Dumbledore nodded and pulled a wooden wand from his belt, he pointed it at a nearby plate of sandwich cakes and said "accio," the plate zoomed across the room and safely into Dumbledore's waiting hand.

"Impressive," Jarod said stoickly. "Though any Jedi could do the same thing without tools or words."

"Perhaps," Dumbledore replied, "though that was just a small example, I could just as easily have summoned an object that we could not see. Perhaps you would like a drink?" he pointed his wand at a nearby sheet of paper and it turned into a silver goblet, then he pointed the tip just inside the rim and water flowed freely into the cup. "In a student's sixth year, he or she is taught how to cast 'non-verbal' magic." He explained.

Jarod accepted the goblet and took a sip, it was a rather warm day. "I will admit, that is a little more impressive, and I take it Andrew would learn much more during his time at your school."

"Yes," Dumbledore answered, "the main problem that we, the Wizarding community, have here is that Andrew cannot control his powers. True you haven't noticed then yet, but it would only be a matter of time until someone did, and that could lead to the exposure of our world," he explained.

"And I presume that your main worry there is the reverting to the witch trials?" Jarod asked, half amused, and Dumbledore chuckled too.

"Yes, or worse, I came here to offer him a place at my school, however as his mentor I presume that you are responsible for him, so I must ask you first, may I offer Andrew to come to my school?" Dumbledore asked.

Jarod was about to answer, but then he paused. "What exactly do you mean when you say 'or worse'?" He sensed a slight change in Dumbledore's mood as the man sighed.

"It's not a common thing nowadays," Dumbledore began. "But centuries ago, during the witch trials, magical children found themselves needing to suppress their power, in order for Muggles to see them as ordinary children." Jarod nodded in understanding and motioned for the older man to continue. "In nearly every case where a child suppresses their magic, a dark force begins to build inside of them, a parasitic entity that is known as an Obscurus. It is a foul-some creature which feeds off the child's very life force. Should Andrew become an Obscurial, he would either die from being fed upon, or he would have to be put down as the Obscurus took control of his body."

"I see," Jarod said, rubbing the stubble growing on his chin. "I see then that there is little choice. You may offer Andrew a place at your school." Dumbledore smiled gratefully. "However, should he accept I will be setting down some ground rules. But I'll save that for if he agrees," Jarod answered. He waved his hand at the door and the lock clicked open. "You may enter now Andrew," Jarod called and Andrew entered slowly, his robes were damp and sweat beaded his forehead, he had obviously been sparring when Mel found him.

Andrew bowed to Jarod "You wished to see me Master?" he asked once he'd straightened.

"Yes my young Padawan, please sit down," Jarod answered, Andrew sat where he could see both men at the same time, he couldn't help feeling that the older man looked strange, but then again with his own appearance he couldn't exactly say much.

"Andrew this is Professor Albus Dumbledore, he's come to talk to you about something which I feel is rather important," Jarod announced.

"Hello Andrew, it's a pleasure to meet you," Dumbledore said, leaning forward and offering his hand, Andrew shook it and said decided that at this point, listening was the best way to go, so he nodded his thanks for the compliment.

"Now Andrew, what I am about to say, might come as a bit of a shock," Dumbledore started and Andrew's heart rate increased dangerously.

"I haven't lost another relative have I?" he shouted, panicked.

"Oh no, not to worry, however I do believe that my being here started from the day you returned from a funeral. You, Andrew are a wizard." Dumbledore stated bluntly.

Andrew looked at him disbelievingly; he then looked at his Master, who was looking at Dumbledore with an expression that clearly asked 'Really? _That's_ how you tell him?' Andrew then blinked a few times and then laughed.

"You're joking right?" Andrew laughed with tears in his eyes.

"Andrew that is rather rude," Jarod scolded but Dumbledore waved a hand towards him calmingly.

"This happens every time, only yesterday I had to see a young lady named Hermione Granger. She and her parents had a similar reaction," Dumbledore explained. "And no Andrew, I am not joking."

"Well, I'm sorry Professor, but you have the wrong person. I'm just a ten-year-old Jedi's Padawan, how can I possibly be a wizard?" Andrew countered.

"Well then, Andrew, answer me this. Have you ever make something happen? Something that you could not explain, even to yourself, when you were angry, or afraid?" Dumbledore asked.

Andrew was about to answer with a 'no', when he stopped himself. There was the shattering of glass in his room when he was angry, the fixing of it when he became scared, but that didn't explain what happened the week later.

"Yes, one where I was angry, one right after when I was terrified, but that doesn't explain one thing." Andrew answered cautiously.

"Yes?" Dumbledore queried.

"About three weeks ago we had a black out, I really needed some light so that I could find the door and then get to the Younglings. Most of them are scared of the dark and I could feel it, and then suddenly a candle just lit itself next to me," Andrew explained.

"Ah, that would be the rarest form of accidental magic, desperation. I take it that besides breaking every piece of glass in your bedroom and fixing it four weeks ago, that is all the magic you have performed?" Dumbledore said.

Andrew was about to answer when he realised what Dumbledore had just said. "Hold on, how did you know?" he asked, shocked.

"The Ministry of Magic keeps an eye on what magic is used and where, that is how young witches and wizards are discovered, now that you __have__ been discovered, a spell is on you, known as 'The Trace'. With it, you can monitored to make sure you don't cast 'underage' magic outside of school. But do not worry, it isn't permanent, that spell breaks when you come of age, in the Wizarding World, that is at the age of seventeen." Dumbledore explained.

"Oh," Andrew said bluntly. "Well, yes, that's all I've done. Except, I've been practising that candles thing," he snapped his fingers and every candle in Jarod's room became lit.

"Interesting, you appear to have mastered that skill, and without any tutelage, most impressive" Dumbledore stated rhetorically.

"Yes," answered Andrew, sounding more convinced by the man before him. "However, you haven't quite mentioned why you're here, it couldn't just be to say 'hi, you're a wizard, cheerio'," Andrew said sarcastically, causing Dumbledore to chuckle a little.

"You are correct my young apprentice," Jarod said, looking a little stern, getting the message across that Andrew was being a little impolite.

"You see Andrew, I am the headmaster of a school where young witches and wizards, like yourself, come to learn about magic, to control their powers and to gain the skills that they will need to start their careers in the magical world. There is a place for you at my school, if you are willing to accept that is." Dumbledore explained, waiting patiently for Andrew's reply.

Andrew looked to his mentor, his hazel eyes burning with a silent question, Jarod simply nodded and Andrew beamed.

"Yes, I would be honoured to attend you school, Professor," he answered.

Dumbledore smiled; a twinkle in his eye.

"Now then Professor Dumbledore, about those ground rules," Jarod spoke up. "First, his magical education is not to interfere with his Jedi training."

Andrew started to worry, he could easily keep up in more than one form of education, but he wondered what Master Cooper's other conditions were, if they were not agreed to would be no longer be permitted to go?

"If necessary I shall see to that myself," Dumbledore answered.

"Second, I insist that I be permitted to visit at weekends so that I may check his progress, such as his ability in telekinesis and his ability with a lightsaber," Jarod continued, Dumbledore said that it shouldn't be a problem.

"Third, I wanted to start teaching Andrew the art of meditation, I can teach him the basics in the time that I have. However I want him to continue at least once a day while at school for thirty minutes to an hour," Dumbledore vowed to have meditation added to Andrew's timetable so that he would remember.

"And finally this is going to need to be brought before the council," Jarod finished and Andrew's heart almost stopped. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the Wizarding World was meant to be secret from the world of muggles, but this might breach that secrecy.

"Would any Jedi spread the secret of our world beyond this temple?" Dumbledore asked.

"With the exception of Younglings below the age of six, I would say 'no'," Jarod answered. "It would be a breach of our code, to give away a secret told in confidence. Unless of course there is a life is at stake. Of course we cannot blame children who are so young for being innocent now can we?" Jarod asked jokingly.

"No, we cannot," Dumbledore laughed. "Very well, you may inform your council, and Andrew," Andrew looked at Dumbledore. "If you feel that a friend of yours can be trusted with this knowledge; then by all means tell them, after all, Hogwarts _is_ much like a Muggle boarding school." he said with a knowing look.

"I would suggest that you tell me who you would like to tell first and I will let you know if you should tell them or not," Jarod stated.

"I can only think of telling Mel, I'd like her to know why I won't be here," Andrew said, thinking of how much he was going to miss her.

"Very well, we can tell her later, I take it that we will need some form of supplies?" Jarod asked.

 _Ten Minutes Later._

Dumbledore waited patiently with Andrew. He had explained to Jarod about what new students required, Andrew was still reading his letter through over and over. With his eidetic memory, he had only needed to do so once, but a part of him was still finding all of this hard to believe.

Jarod was explaining to the council, everything that Dumbledore had told him and requesting the money that would be needed to buy Andrew's supplies.

The doors hissed open and Andrew looked up.

"Well Andrew, do you want to wear your robes or change into something more comfortable?" Jarod asked, his face clearly stating that they had permission.

The boy didn't need telling twice, he hopped off the bench and went running.

"Meet us in the entrance hall!" Jarod yelled after him, chuckling to himself.

 _Five Minutes Later._

"There is something that I forgot to mention Professor," Jarod said while they waited.

"What might that be Master Jedi, and please call me Albus, I never like being formal with a fellow teacher," Dumbledore asked.

"Then, by all means, call me Jarod," he answered with a smile. "I forgot to mention that no Jedi goes anywhere without his or her lightsaber, would that be permitted at your school?"

"Yes it would, after all every student is permitted, and __required__ , to carry their wand at all times," Dumbledore answered as a red and blue streak shot past him and off the steps they were standing by.

"That was Andrew, come on," Jarod stated exasperatedly.

Andrew realised, only too late, that he didn't give himself enough time to slow down from his Force run. He flew off the steps and had to think fast. He rolled over in mid air, pivoted on one hand halfway down the steps and landed on his feet at the bottom.

"Congratulations Andrew, you have finally learned how to gracefully fall down the stairs," Jarod scolded. "I know you have a need for speed, but please do not Force run near stairs until you have learned how to stop!"

"Sorry Master," Andrew said while bowing, he was wearing a long sleeved, red shirt and blue denim jeans; it was quite the contrast to the brown and off-white of Jedi tunics and robes.

"That's alright, now according to Albus, the wizard bank can transfer a substantial amount from our muggle account into a wizarding account, so that we can afford not only this years books but the next six as well," Jarod explained. "And also in case we have another student like yourself." He added as an after thought.

That basically meant that they weren't going to a muggle bank first, Dumbledore led Andrew and Jarod to, what looked like, a rundown pub. But as Andrew stared at the sign, Jarod kept glancing up and down the street.

"Why have we stopped here Albus?" he asked. Dumbledore pointed out the pup and Jarod recoiled slightly as it suddenly 'appeared' before him.

"That's the wards, many wizarding locations, Hogwarts being key among them, have spells in place to ensure that muggles do not stumble onto them by accident," Dumbledore explained and led the way inside, The Leaky Cauldron.

The place was packed, there was lively music which made Andrew foot start tapping, there was loud conversation, and even though the outside looked rundown and dingy the inside looked like the place had only recently gone into business.

"Ah, Professor Dumbledore, can I get you anything?" the barman asked.

"Not right now Tom, I'm assisting this young man with his school supplies," Dumbledore answered him while patting Andrew on the shoulder.

Tom just chuckled at Andrew as he stared at a nearby witch, she was stirring a cup of tea, she was reading a novel and moving her finger in a figure of eight and the spoon, which was at least ten centimetres away from her hand, was moving in the same motion. What came across as strange to Andrew was that he sensed no Force sensitivity from her.

Dumbledore led the way to the back; and into a small courtyard with high walls around it. He tapped a particular brick three times with his wand, telling Andrew to memorise which brick he pressed, since he would not be able to accompany them every time he needed supplies.

The first place they went to was Gringotts bank, a huge white building which had a rather unnerving message on one of the doors.

 _Enter, stranger, but take heed_

 _Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

 _For those who take, but do not earn,_

 _Must pay most dearly in their turn,_

 _So if you seek beneath our floors_

 _A treasure that was never yours,_

 _Thief, you have been warned, beware_

 _Of finding more than treasure there._

"Good advice," Jarod observed, "there's a moral there my young Padawan, if you go into the thieves trade you will eventually get more than you bargained for."

Andrew reread the words, thinking on his Master's words and now the meaning was clear.

Dumbledore lead the way, past many goblins who were making transactions, Andrew could sense cunning from each of them, and could tell that they were not a race to wrong. Eventually Dumbledore stopped before a goblin who was obviously in charge of the others.

"Good morning Ranok, I have a friend who would like to open an account by transferring money from a muggle bank," Dumbledore said, both cheerfully and politely.

The goblin named Ranok looked up from his parchment, regardless of Dumbledore's tone, he looked as though he were scowling. He scanned Dumbledore's face and nodded "Follow me," he snapped formally.

He led them to an office where he asked for bank details from Jarod, within five minutes twenty five thousand pounds was transferred into a vault at Gringotts in the form of eight thousand two hundred and ninety six gold Galleons, two silver Sickles and thirteen bronze Knuts.

After the account was opened under the name of Andrew Payne, with a yearly withdrawal limit of five hundred Galleons, it was time to make a withdrawal. They had an awesome roller coaster ride in what could best be described as a mining cart.

They withdrew only fifty Galleons, simply stating that if they needed more then they would return, but if they had spare change then Andrew could keep hold of it in case of emergencies.

The first place that they went to was ' _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'_ where Dumbledore met one of his colleagues.

"Ah Hagrid, how are you?" he asked.

"Mornin' Professor Dumbledore, sir, just helpin' 'Arry with his shoppin'" Hagrid said, Andrew knew that the head of the Jedi Order was tall, but he would only just reach Hagrid's shoulder. "Oh, yeh wanted me to fetch yeh this," Hagrid said passing Dumbledore a small wrapped bundle, which Dumbledore pocketed, another boy with black hair, green eyes, broken glasses and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead stepped from the shop.

"What's up?" Hagrid asked him.

"Nothing," he said, Andrew could tell he was lying, but then again, he had an edge.

"Well why don't you and Harry wait here and you can take Andrew and Jarod the rest of the way? They have only just started their shopping and I need to return to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said casually, Hagrid agreed and Andrew entered the shop with Jarod.

As they entered a boy with white-blond hair and a pointed face was leaving, as he walked past Andrew his mother muttered something, Andrew didn't catch it, but he knew the woman was trying to insult him.

"Hogwarts?" asked a witch with a kind face who Andrew guessed was Madam Mulkin.

"Yes," Jarod answered, Andrew was soon fitted and left with three sets of robes, one pointed hat and a cloak.

"Well that's the uniform sorted," Andrew stated, mentally ticking things off of his list.

Once outside Andrew and Jarod had a nice chat with Hagrid about Hogwarts and the Wizarding world, Andrew discovered a new sport called Quidditch which sounded fantastic to watch.

"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?" Harry asked Hagrid; it seemed that the boy whose mother muttered at Andrew was rather civil with Harry.

"School houses." Hagrid answered. "There's four see, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw an' Slytherin. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but …"

"I bet I'm put into Hufflepuff," Harry interrupted, seeming down.

"Trust me Harry, tha'd be better than Slytherin," Hagrid said darkly, "every witch an' wizard that went bad was in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

"I'm sorry, who?" Jarod asked.

Hagrid looked around and lowered his voice. "Voldemort," he whispered, "but whatever you do, don' say his name, everyone's scared o' it," he explained at his normal volume.

"What's so scary about a French verb?" Andrew blurted out, causing Harry and Hagrid to stare at him blankly.

Jarod chuckled. "The syllables of that name just so happen to be French," he explained. "'Vol' is 'flight', 'de' is 'of' and 'mort' is 'death'."

"Knowing a lot of languages is part of the Jedi job description," Andrew added with a shrug.

"So Vol … sorry, I mean, You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts? Harry asked, shrugging off the lengthy translation.

"Years an' years ago Harry," Hagrid said.

Andrew however was curious as to why Harry was so interested.

"Why the interest Harry?" Andrew asked.

Harry asked if Hagrid could answer, since he knew more than Harry did about it.

"You-Know-Who killed Harry's parents when he was just a baby. The thing is though, he tried killin' Harry too. The most powerful dark wizard in history an' he couldn't kill a baby, no one knows why, an' tha's why he's so famous. Tha's why everyone, yeh two bein' exceptions o' course, knows Harry's name. He's The Boy Who Lived," Hagrid explained.

Andrew could've kicked himself for asking, and he nearly did, before Jarod said "Our apologies, we didn't know," Harry simply said that it was alright and Andrew took the initiative.

"I'm sorry for your loss; I've got a friend who's had a similar experience. Her parents and older brothers and sisters were murdered by some idiots who were breaking in. The only reason she survived was because she used the Force to defend herself. They ended up in prison with life sentences and she's now a permanent resident at the Jedi temple, come to think of it, that's how the Jedi found her wasn't it Master?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, it's rather strange that you should go to school with someone who has had a similar experience to Melanie," Jarod answered thoughtfully.

"Well, we'd best get on, or we'll never be done," Hagrid laughed and they started walking off.

"So what's with the braid?" Harry asked.

Andrew could tell that he was just being curious, and not trying to insult him. "I'm a padawan learner of the Jedi Arts, the braid is kinda like my rank insignia, like a Privates Chevron in the armed forces," he explained.

Harry was in awe to find he was in the presence of two Jedi, but carried on asking questions.

"What would you like to know?" Andrew asked.

"Well, how do you manage to be worldwide peacekeepers when you're just based in London?" Harry asked.

"That's a common misconception," Andrew answered. "Everyone seems to think we're just local, but we're not. There's a Jedi Temple in every capital city in the world, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin and so on."

"Oh, so how's the order kept running exactly?" Harry pressed.

"Well, London takes care of recruiting and training in England, Paris takes care of France, get where this is going?" Andrew carried on without letting Harry answer. "Each temple, has its own council, but London is the seat of the Order's High Council. The head of the order stays in London and each temple's council has it's head hold a seat. Master Cooper is head of the London council, in charge of the London Temple, and holds a seat on the High council."

"And you have time to teach Andrew too?" Hagrid chuckled.

"Yes, he's exhausting!" Jarod joked.

"Evil," Andrew dead-panned. "Anyway, the High council doesn't tend to meet too often, so aside from Masters McKnight and Cooper, all its members attend via holo-coms." he explained. "Mostly in times of crisis or, when Master McKnight passes on, to elect his replacement."

"So each temple takes care of its own business, unless something like a war breaks out?" Harry asked.

"Well if _that_ ever happened, there'd be a meeting to find out who screwed up." Andrew said seriously. "But essentially, yes."

The next stop for them was Flourish and Blotts, Andrew bought all of his books there and also wrote down a list of wizard novels that caught his interest.

"Like readin' then?" Hagrid asked, any other person would've jumped a mile out of their skin, but Andrew sensed his approach.

"Yeah," Andrew answered absent-mindedly, he finished reading the description of the book on the back and added another book to his list, and then he noticed that it was the first of a series so he added the rest as well. "I'm not sure why I ever consider buying books though, I have an eidetic memory." Hagrid looked a little confused at that so Andrew explained. "Most people call it a 'photographic' memory, I read something and then never forget it."

"Andrew, we really need to press on," Jarod said calmly, he too was tempted to browse, but they'd already slowed down Harry and Hagrid by asking them to wait at Madam Malkin's. Andrew reluctantly left the shop and they continued.

The next stop was some kind of metal works shop; there Harry tried to get a solid gold cauldron, Andrew laughed, but couldn't blame him, it looked cool.

"It says pewter on yer list," Hagrid said Harry conceded that he didn't really need it, so they got a cauldron each as well as a set of scales and a collapsible brass telescope.

Hagrid asked for two sets of basic potion ingredients, Jarod paying for one of them, and Andrew and Harry explored the Apothecary, the place stank of rotten cabbages and bad eggs, but the things on display were slimy and rather interesting.

Andrew was examining a Unicorn's horn and Harry was looking at black beetle eyes when the two adults came back and led them from the shop.

"Just yer wands left," Hagrid stated while checking Harry's list. "Oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."

That caused Harry to turn bright red, he tried to protest but Hagrid wouldn't have it, in the end Hagrid decided to buy Harry his animal; that caused Andrew to think of his letter again.

 _Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad._

 _"_ _How come you can't have dogs?" Andrew asked aloud. Jarod suggested allergies or that a lot of people were afraid of dogs._

Hagrid explained that toads were out of fashion, not that that bothered Andrew and Jarod, Jedi had no need for fashion, and cats made him sneeze, so the best option was an owl, which were mostly useful since they delivered post.

"Well then I suppose we had best buy an owl too, I suspect that Hogwarts doesn't have a telephone or is visited by a muggle postman," Jarod chuckled as they followed Hagrid to Eeylops Owl Emporium.

They took about twenty minutes, Harry had chosen a snow white owl, who was asleep, but she woke up as she was being placed in her cage and her screech awoke the owl that was her neighbour, a male.

Andrew could sense his feelings, that owl was attracted to the one Harry had chosen, Andrew closed his eyes, searching her feelings too, she felt the same. He made a quick decision and chose the snow white owl that was left.

"Why that one Andrew?" Jarod asked.

"I could tell that he wanted to go with her," Andrew answered while looking pointedly at Harry's owl.

"How do you intend to tell them apart?" Jarod asked, the shop owner heard him and decided to answer.

"This one has a large yellow spot on his back," he explained, gently turning the owl around so that the Jedi could see, it looked much like a flame.

"Oh, in that case I know exactly what to call him, Snowfire," Andrew announced, pleased to see that the owl responded to it instantly.

They left the shop and Hagrid led them to Ollivanders, as they went he explained that Ollivanders had been making wands for centuries and that they were, quite literally, the best.

A tiny bell rang in the back as they entered; everywhere they looked there were bookshelves, all of them loaded with small boxes which, Andrew presumed, contained a wand each.

Hagrid sat down in the only chair in the room and the Jedi waited patiently for Harry to be served first.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice, Harry visibly jumped, as did Hagrid which caused the chair he was sitting on to crunch under his weight, of course the two Jedi didn't even flinch as they knew exactly where the newcomer was.

However Harry wasn't pleased when he heard Andrew give an involuntary snort "Cheat," he muttered before greeting the shop owner, presumably Mr Ollivander.

"Ah yes, I thought I'd be seeing you very soon Harry Potter," he stated simply. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Andrew found it slightly unnerving that this man's memory was so vivid; he had never encountered another person with an eidetic memory.

"Is that what I sound like sometimes, Master?" Andrew whispered quietly to Jarod.

"No, Andrew," Jarod answered with a chuckle. "It's what you sound like _all_ the time."

Ollivander moved towards Harry. "Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father _favoured_ it, but it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Andrew was beginning to get a little scared of this man, the events he was describing had to be at least two decades ago. He couldn't help wondering if so many memories stuck inside one head was healthy or not.

Ollivander touched Harry's scar and seemed sad. "I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that caused that," he said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands … well if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do …" he trailed off.

He then noticed Hagrid and had a pleasant conversation with him, he stated Hagrid's wand "Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy …" and Andrew found out that Hagrid's wand had been snapped, it happened to all students who were expelled from school.

Both of the Jedi became slightly suspicious of Hagrid's umbrella when he and Ollivander spoke of Hagrid's wand pieces.

"Well now, Mr Potter. Let me see. Which is your wand arm?" Ollivander asked while pulling out a tape measure with silver markings.

"Well, I'm right-handed," Harry said nervously.

Ollivander asked Harry to hold out his right arm and a tape measure started measuring him in various places of its own accord. Ollivander himself was fetching down boxes of wands from the shelves and explaining to Harry about wands, the fact that each wand either had a unicorn hair, a phoenix tail feather or a dragon heartstring inside if it. It was that magical substance which gave the wand its power. Ollivander went on to explain that no two wands were the same and that another person's wand would not be as useful.

Finally, after Harry realised that the tape measure was working alone, Ollivander brought over a few boxes.

"Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave." Ollivander said handing the wand he'd just described to Harry, he took it and waved it around.

Ollivander snatched it back and passed Harry another one. "Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy." Harry had barely raised this one before Ollivander took it back as well. He then passed Harry an "Ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy."

It was becoming clear that Harry was beginning to lose hope, the pile of wands that he'd tried was beginning to reach the ceiling, however Ollivander was seemingly becoming happier by the minute; he passed Harry a "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took it, raised it above his head and swished it in front of him, sending red and gold sparks into the far wall. Hagrid, Jarod and Andrew applauded and Mr Ollivander was over the moon, he placed Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it up, constantly muttering "Curious … curious …"

It didn't take long for Harry to ask. "I'm sorry, but __what's__ curious?"

Ollivander eyes bore into Harry's. "I remember every wand I ever sold, Mr Potter. Every, single, one. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather … just one other. It is curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother … why its brother gave you that scar."

That caused Andrew to gasp and Jarod's mouth to fall agape. Harry audibly gulped.

"Yes, thirteen and a half inches, made of yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard; remember … I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter. After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things … terrible, yes, but great." Ollivander concluded.

Harry paid for his wand and stepped aside for Andrew to be seen to.

"Now young man, what is __your__ wand arm?" Ollivander asked.

"I don't know, I'm left handed," Andrew answered, then summoned his lightsaber to his left hand and activated it at and angle to his side, he didn't want to harm Mr Ollivander. "But _that_ hand is already taken." He finished as Ollivander's eyes instantly took an interest in the weapon.

He held out his hands, his eyes saying "may I?" Andrew nodded, deactivated it and placed the weapon in his hands.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Andrew said as Ollivander's finger hovered over the activation button. "Each Jedi's lightsaber has a built-in safety device," he explained. "That button is also a thumbprint reader. If anyone other than its owner tries to use it they receive a short, ten thousand volt electrical shock, enough to render the average person unconscious," he finished.

Ollivander nodded and continued examining the object in his hands, from the metallic casing to the crystal that gave the blade its blue hue.

"I take it then that, like wands, no two of these weapons are the same?" Ollivander asked.

"No they aren't," Jarod answered from the corner, handing over his own lightsabre for comparison, the casing was similar, the shape different and instead of a crystal, Jarod's had an emerald. "Every Youngling at the temple is taught and shown how to build a lightsaber and then left to build their own, which is how each one is different," he explained.

Ollivander handed Andrew back his weapon, he reattached it to his belt, and the tape measure started off again. "We will have to use the right hand then," he said while leaving to fetch boxes.

An hour later the four of them left the shop, Andrew had paid seven Galleons for a thirteen inch, Beechwood and phoenix feather wand, which was apparently good for charm work __and__ transfiguration.

"Well, that's everything," Jarod said pleasantly "How are you getting home Harry?"

"Got a train to catch," Hagrid answered.

"I have another idea, the temple's not far from here, why not come back and Andrew can fly you home." Jarod offered, causing Andrew's face to brighten up, he always loved to fly.

Harry wasn't too comfortable with the thought of someone his age piloting ... anything really. "Is that safe?" he asked cautiously, and Andrew's face darkened again.

"Listen buddy," he snapped playfully, poking Harry in the chest. "If you can get it off the ground, I can fly it, I've been piloting scrap heaps like a pro since I was seven!"

"He's not exaggerating either, sometimes I wonder how the things he manages to get airborne don't just die out and plummet to Earth like rocks," Jarod laughed, if there was one thing his apprentice didn't like, it was people thinking he wasn't a great pilot, simply because of his age.

"Okay then," Harry sighed, still a little worried.

Half an hour later they'd returned to the temple, Andrew had packed his things away in the trunk that they'd bought while on their way out of Diagon Ally, they'd packed Harry's things into his trunk and climbed aboard a small shuttle-type aircraft.

Harry's owl was in her cage, perched next to his trunk and Snowfire was in his cage next to her, Andrew thought it best to show his owl where he'd most likely be travelling to for the next month since he and Harry had agreed to send letters to each other.

"Not going with him Hagrid?" Jarod asked.

"'Fraid not Master Cooper, I've gotta get back to Hogwarts anyway, tell Andrew I'll see him at school" Hagrid said with a smile and a wave of his hand.

"Very well then, a safe journey to you, and may the Force be with you," Jarod replied with a bow of farewell, Hagrid returned the gesture and departed just as, inside the cockpit Andrew rook hold of the controls, which were in the shape of gauntlets and revved up the engines.

Harry didn't like the way that this thing was vibrating and Andrew sensed his fear.

"Don't worry Harry, I've flown things in __way__ worse condition than this baby, and for further distances too, besides, not only will I get you home safely, I'll teach you how to fly this thing at the same time," Andrew told him with a smirk.

"I think you had best save the flying lesson for another time and place, such as when Harry can have permission to visit the temple and the simulator room where if anything goes wrong he can't kill himself," Jarod said sternly whilst taking a seat and buckling himself in tightly.

"Fairy bubbles," Andrew said "This is 'Mobius' calling launch bay control, requesting permission to depart."

"'Mobius?" Harry asked quietly.

"My call-sign, it's a fighter pilot thing." Andrew explained, listening for the response. "If two people in the air have the same first name, a call-sign saves any confusion, because no two are the same."

The speakers crackled into life as the control room answered " _Roger that Mobius, you have permission to leave, have a safe trip and may the Force be with you._ "

"Thanks control, may the Force be with you." And Andrew shot from the launch pad, at first Harry was terrified and Jarod felt as though he was going to be sick, but soon Harry was whooping and cheering Andrew on to go faster.

Once Andrew was above the clouds he set the craft on autopilot, knowing what was coming next.

Jarod unbuckled himself from his seat and started running, saying something along the lines of, "Blast! This is why I hate flying!" Harry looked at Andrew, Andrew looked back, and they both burst out laughing.

"Does your Master have a call-sign?" Harry asked as his laughter died down.

"Yes, he does," Andrew answered, "'Swordsman'." he added to answer Harry's obvious next question.

Half an hour, three near misses with airliners and two vomits from Jarod later, they arrived at Privet Drive, Andrew brought the shuttle in, towards the road, removed his hands from the controls and pressed a button, the gauntlets disappeared and a steering wheel replaced them.

They were now driving along the road in a black Ford Focus which had the Jedi insignia on the bonnet and doors.

"Where's my trunk?" Harry asked as he looked back to see Jarod on the back seat next to the two owl cages.

"In the boot," Andrew answered casually, as if he was asked that kind of question all the time.

He pulled up to number four and he and Jarod helped Harry to get his things into the house and to his room. Jarod stayed at the front door to explain, to Harry's uncle, how he and Andrew came to be there. At the first mention of Andrew being a wizard, Harry's uncle, Vernon Dursley turned rather nasty, ordering the two Jedi to get out and saying something about not wanting freaks about his house before slamming the door in their faces.

"Charming fellow," Jarod said dryly, "shall we?" he asked, motioning to the car

.

Andrew didn't move at first, he could sense Harry's uncle was very close to hitting Harry and wanted to charge in there, lightsaber blazing and save him from the trouble that he'd caused.

"He will be fine young one, I can sense Mr Dursley's anger, but he will not hit Harry, can you not sense his fear over Harry's powers? Jarod asked comfortingly.

Andrew nodded. "I still feel guilty for getting him in trouble," he said.

"Well I do too," Jarod sighed. "However Harry's relatives don't seem the type that would like anything out of the ordinary, he didn't seem to like the fact that he was speaking to a Jedi for that matter, mentioning that you were a wizard must have crossed his breaking point. Come along Andrew, we need to get back and break the news to Mel."

Andrew paled, he wasn't looking forward to the hurt that would most likely cross her face. "Can't we just go and say 'hi' to Harry's relatives again?" he asked.

Jarod laughed and said they couldn't, so Andrew reluctantly got into the car and they left.


	2. Going to Hogwarts

**Chapter 2 – Going to Hogwarts**

Andrew was feeling slightly depressed. Mel had taken the news of him being a wizard fantastically well, but she'd broken down into tears when he said that he had to go away for his education.

He'd been away from the temple on assignments before, but never without his Master, never for the best part of a year. He was going to miss everyone, even Rozwell. Everyone was told about him going away for 'special training' and even the youngest of the Younglings, his constant victims of pranks, had cried. They were going to miss him, some would even miss his pranks after a while.

The only people that actually knew the truth were the Masters and Knights. But right now Andrew didn't have time to worry about that right now, no now he was mentally going through his school list, packing an item or items into his trunk and then ticking that item off the list in his head. Once he was done he closed the lid and looked at the time, it was ten minutes to ten and Andrew was itching for sleep.

He changed into his pyjamas, just a set of tracksuit trousers during the summer, and was just climbing into bed when Jarod knocked on the door, coming in once Andrew called 'come in'.

"Finished packing?" he asked, Andrew nodded silently and laid down. "Mel's asking about coming with us to the station, which in turn has caused her Master to insist on coming too."

That caused Andrew to involuntarily shiver, Master Dela Bailo was a nice enough woman, but she'd gotten in the way of one of his pranks once and he'd never been on excellent terms with her since.

"I sent a note to Dumbledore asking about two more coming to the train station, and possibly to my weekend visits as well," Jarod continued, pretending not to notice Andrew's reaction to the news. "Going by how fast Snowfire is, I think we can expect an answer by morning."

"I understand. Is there anything else Master?" Andrew asked sleepily.

"No young one," Jarod answered, shaking his head gently. "Go to sleep now, you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow," he added.

Andrew rolled over and his breathing slowed, indicating that he'd fallen straight to sleep, Jarod smiled, knowing that Andrew was completely packed to go, he stood silently and left his student to rest.

 _Next Morning_

Andrew's alarm clock went off at the usual time of seven in the morning. He looked at the clock, shut off the alarm and turned over to go back to sleep. He briefly noticed the calendar as he did so, or to be more precise, the date.

His eyes snapped back open and he bolted upright, wide awake all of a sudden. He leapt out of bed and started scrambling to get his tunic, trousers and robes on. Once he'd finished realising that his boots were on the wrong feet and correcting the mistake, he shot out of his room, crashing head first into his Master's gut.

"Oof!" Jarod gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. "Good morning to you too young one," he wheezed.

"Forgive me Master, I slept in," Andrew apologised with a bow.

"Do not worry my young Padawan, if anything you're running early, for once," Jarod chuckled. "As I predicted, I have received word from Albus. Mel and Master Bailo will be joining us to the station and coming with me during my weekend visits to Hogwarts as well. It would be easier to gauge how far you have come if you spar against another Padawan and, besides, you and Mel have always been competitive," Jarod explained as they walked, calmly, to breakfast.

At breakfast Andrew calmly ate a bowl of corn flakes, which was laced with sugar. This was followed by a full english breakfast and a mug of mint tea. All of which mounted together to make him more alert.

At half past eight, after spending his last hour talking amongst his fellow knights to be, Jarod and Dela nodded to their Padawans, signalling that it was time to get Andrew's things loaded onto a shuttle, Andrew would fly them there and Dela would drive back.

Andrew stood up, much to the encouraging applause of the breakfast hall and shouts of luck and farewell, and left for his room. Jarod stood waiting outside Andrew's room, offering to take boys trunk, but the young Jedi insisted that he could manage. Andrew picked up his trunk and levitated it all the way from his room to the launch bay.

As soon as they were all strapped into their seats and Andrew had permission to leave, he took off. He thought it was rather pointless to fly to King's Cross station when walking took less than an hour, but pegged it down to his Master wanting to give him a parting gift, one last fly.

"There's no need to rush Andrew," Jarod half-called. "It's only quarter to nine and your train doesn't leave until eleven exactly. So just take a leisurely flight around London," Jarod said with a smile, Andrew returned the smile and was about to really cut loose when Jarod added "but no stunts!" sternly.

 _One Hour and Forty Five minutes Later_

Andrew pushed at his trolley with Mel beside him, they were definitely going to miss each other, but at least they'd get to see each other, if only for weekends.

About a metre behind them Dela was talking with Jarod in hushed tones.

"How long until you think they'll 'notice' each other?" she asked him, referring to their Padawans.

"I'm not so sure they will," Jarod answered with a chuckle. "They're too alike to be truly compatible."

"Perhaps," Dela mused. "You think they feel more like siblings?"

"Harry, HEY HARRY!" Andrew yelled, not giving Jarod time to answer.

The children had just walked out of the elevator at platforms nine and ten, Jarod and Dela opting for the stairs, and seen Harry by himself.

"Hi Andrew, who's this?" Harry asked, referring to Mel.

"Mel, meet Harry Potter, he's starting too, Harry this is Mel Jacobs, you remember I told you about her at Diagon Ally," Andrew announced.

"Oh yeah, sorry about your family, how old were you?" Harry asked, Mel glared at Andrew but answered.

"Six," she growled, now Andrew knew she wasn't happy.

"I was only a year old, or so I'm told," Harry answered, missing Mel's tone, her face softened once she knew that Harry had had a similar experience and she gave an 'alright, you're forgiven' look to Andrew.

Harry was introduced to Master Dela Bailo, she was a tall woman, she and Jarod both stood at six foot exactly, only she was slightly taller due to her heeled boots, she had raven black hair which was kept in a short bun with a couple of bangs to frame her face. Her eyes were an unusual lavender colour which bore deep into your soul and her face gave the impression that she wasn't to be messed with or underestimated.

"Hold on a moment," said Andrew, coming to a stop as they walked down the platforms. "Harry, didn't you say that your aunt and uncle were bringing you here?" he asked, Jarod looked around and noticed a severe lack of Mr Dursley's huge body.

"Well, technically they did _bring_ me _here_ …" started Harry, but the four Jedi around him sensed the truth.

"They just abandoned you here?" asked Dela her face twisting into a look of outrage, Harry simply nodded.

"You know, I could handle your uncle calling me a freak when we first met, but now he's starting to get on my nerves," stated Andrew rather darkly.

They looked around, trying to find platform nine and three quarters, Harry stated that he'd already asked a guard, the man had obviously never heard of Hogwarts and also said that there wasn't even a train leaving at eleven o'clock.

They all started to think that they might as well give up when a family walked by.

Andrew distinctly heard "… packed with muggles of course …" as did Harry, they looked at each other and silently decided to follow them.

The family, all of them with flaming red hair, stopped and so did Harry, Andrew and the other Jedi.

There was one plump woman, four boys of varying heights and a small girl.

"What's the platform number?" the woman, obviously the boys and girl's mother, asked.

"Nine and three quarters!" the girl said, sounding slightly sad "Mum, can't I go …"

"You're not old enough, Ginny now be quiet. Alright, Percy you go first." The woman said.

One of the taller boys, probably the oldest marched towards the wall between the two platforms, but as he got close to it a group of tourists swarmed past. When they all vanished he was gone and Andrew was silently cursing the man that invented tourism for he was obviously the devil's spawn.

"Fred, you next," the woman said.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George," he shouted back, both Jarod and Dela chuckled since they could sense the joke. "Honestly, woman, call yourself our mother? Can't you __tell__ I'm George?"

"Sorry, George, dear."

"Only joking, I am Fred," he said and he ran off before his mother could do or say anything, followed closely by his identical twin brother.

Both vanished into thin air and Harry decided to throw caution to the winds.

"Excuse me," he said to the woman while walking up to her, followed closely by the Jedi.

"Hello dear," she said then noticed the second owl in Andrew's possession. "First time going to Hogwarts? Ron's new too." She indicated the last of her sons, he was slightly taller than Andrew, nearly five foot, thin, and gangling. His face was covered in freckles, he had big hands and feet and a large nose.

"Yes," Harry replied "Only … only …"

"We haven't the foggiest idea how to get onto the platform," Andrew finished for him and Harry nodded.

"Not to worry," she said with a smile. "All you have to do, is run straight at that wall," she pointed, "between platforms nine and ten. But whatever you do, don't be scared of crashing into it. If you're nervous then you should do it at a bit of a run." She told Harry to go first and soon he vanished.

Andrew waited for her to go first, but when she didn't he chose to play the gentleman "Ladies first," he said, motioning to the wall.

"Oh thank you, such a gentleman," she said motioning for Ron to go first, she and her daughter followed, then Andrew and Jarod walked through the invisible barrier and onto platform nine and three quarters.

They waited for Mel and Dela to join them before trying to find Harry. Soon they heard that same lady calling for her twin sons, they then saw the small family, Ron was trying to get out of his mother's grasp as she tried to clean something off of his nose. One of the twins said something to make fun of Ron and all the while Mel looked on longingly, thinking of her family, all Andrew could do was place a friendly arm around her shoulders.

As the Jedi continued to walk past the red-haired family they caught some more of their conversation.

"Now you two," said the woman to the twins. "This year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me that you've … you've blown up a toilet or …"

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet." One of the twins said, looking hurt.

"Great idea though, thanks mum." The other twin added, with an evil grin to match the one now plastered on his twin's face.

"It's __not__ _funny_." She scolded. "And look after Ron." She added with a sigh.

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us." Said one of the twins

"Shut up," Ron answered.

"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?" said the other.

Andrew knew what was coming and looked at a train window in time to see Harry quickly lean back.

Fred and George described Harry and stated who he was. Young Ginny begged to go onto the train and see him again, but her mother said 'no', Fred wondered aloud if Harry remembered what Voldemort looked like and got a telling off from his mother.

At this point Mel was helping Andrew lift his trunk onto the train as the whistle blew.

Mel quickly threw her arms around Andrew's neck and said goodbye.

Jarod handed Andrew a small disk-shaped device "Use this Holo-com, to contact me when you get off the train, and may the Force be with you," he said as Dela stepped forward.

"I know that this is early, but happy birthday," she said while handing him a small package, he looked at her questioningly and she nodded, indicating that he could open it now. Andrew did so and was pleasantly surprised to find a few boxes of Twinning's mint tea. "Try to make them last the year, consider yourself forgiven, and may the Force be with you," she said while ushering him onto the train.

"Goodbye, and may the Force be with you too." Andrew said tears in his eyes as the train started to pull out.

Andrew noticed Ginny beginning to cry, he sympathized with her, since Mel was too.

"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls." Said Fred, from a window further up the train.

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat." George added, Andrew didn't hear anything else over the sound of his own laughter.

He pulled himself in from the window and started pulling his trunk into the compartment that Harry was already sat in.

"Alright if I join you?" Andrew asked, Harry eagerly motioned to a seat; Andrew levitated his trunk into the luggage rack and sat down. He'd nearly dozed off when the compartment door opened and Ron was stood there.

"Anyone sat there," he asked pointing to the seat next to Andrew, "everywhere else is full."

Andrew gave a half shrug and Harry shook his head, so Ron sat down.

The twins turned up and mentioned someone called Lee Jordan having a large tarantula in the middle of the train. Ron mumbled something and Andrew felt an overwhelming sense of fear coming from him, but said nothing. The twins introduced themselves to Harry and Andrew and were just about to leave when.

"What was with your Dad's clothes?" Ron asked.

At this Andrew was suddenly awake "My Dad?"

"That guy you were with," Fred explained.

"Oh," Andrew said, catching on. "He's not my Dad, he's my Master," the Weasley boys gave him quizzical looks. "I'm a Jedi Padawan," Andrew explained, pulling out his lightsabre and twirling it between his fingers.

"Oh those muggle peacekeepers," George asked and Andrew nodded. "First time I heard of one going to Hogwarts."

"That's funny, same here," Andrew joked, grinning. The twins had a little laugh at that

"Cool, well, see you later," Fred said and they ran off as Andrew put his weapon away.

Ron got into talking to Harry about his scar and Harry asked about Ron's family; Andrew simply excused himself and went back to dozing off.

At some point, about five minutes later, Andrew got another wave of fear and heard a gasp, he sat bolt upright, his lightsabre in his hand, thinking that they were under attack.

"What?" asked Harry, both shocked at Andrew's reflexive speed and Ron's gasp.

" _You said You-Know-Who's name!_ " Ron said with shock and amazement, once it was explained to Andrew what had happened he put his weapon away, again.

Harry voiced his worry about not knowing anything about the wizarding world, which Andrew agreed with, but Ron told them that loads of students came from the muggle world and most of them learned faster than some from wizarding families.

At about midday a lady opened the door and asked if they wanted anything off the trolley, Ron mumbled something about having sandwiches and Harry shot into the corridor. Andrew remembered that he hadn't brought anything for lunch and slowly stood up too.

He hunted high and low on the trolley and finally found what he was looking for, two packs of plain ham sandwiches; he paid for them and then picked up a bottle of … pumpkin juice?

Ron had come to the door and Andrew held up the bottle and looked at Ron questioningly.

"Give it a try mate, if you don't like it I'll finish it for you, I drink it all the time," Ron said in answer to his unasked question.

So Andrew paid for the juice and went back into the compartment, he tried the juice first and found it to be quite nice, he bought another three and tossed one to Harry and Ron each before downing the rest of his bottle.

"Like it?" Ron asked rhetorically and Andrew nodded with a smirk.

Harry had supplied the chocolates, Andrew the drinks and Ron pointed out what everything was, it was a fair enough exchange.

During the next few minutes Harry opened a Chocolate Frog, Ron assured him that it wasn't a real frog, but he'd want to keep the card, he then went on to explain that each Chocolate Frog came with a famous witch or wizard card, which had a picture of the witch or wizard and a little bit of information on them.

Harry's first card was Dumbledore, it said that he was currently Headmaster of Hogwarts, considered by many to be the greatest wizard of modern times and that he was most famous for his defeat of someone called Grindelwald in 1945, for discovering the twelve uses of dragon's blood and for his work in alchemy with someone called Nicolas Flamel. It also stated that Dumbledore enjoyed chamber music and tenpin bowling.

Andrew wasn't quite paying attention, his eyes being glued to the card in his own hand. He had gotten the card for Myron Wagtail, lead singer of the 'Weird Sisters' band, who looked rather like a young Freddie Mercury. He was kind of perturbed over moving photographs, but he'd seen, and even done, weirder things in his career as a Jedi.

Soon they were onto the Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans. Where Andrew got flavours like mint, chocolate, toe nails, hair, vomit, earwax, strawberry, orange, water, bubble and squeak, sausage, mustard and something that tasted suspiciously of metal.

At the point where Andrew had decided he didn't trust them any more, he'd just had a vinegar flavoured bean, a round faced boy came in asking about a toad. Harry and Ron hadn't noticed one but Andrew told him that he'd seen one crawling past their door and heading towards the back of the train.

The boy thanked the Jedi and left, Ron then turned him Andrew.

"How come you saw something we didn't," he asked.

"To be honest I didn't tell the whole truth, I didn't _see_ a toad, I __sensed__ one," Andrew answered. "The Force binds all life together, by listening to the Force I know where living things are and if they're a threat to me," Andrew explained.

Ron made a small complaint about his rat and was about to try to turn him yellow when the boy was back, this time with a bushy-haired girl.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said, sounding bossy.

"I'd just told him I saw it going that-away," Andrew said, pointing down the train.

But she was more interested in Ron doing magic, he tried his spell and it didn't work, Andrew wasn't too surprised.

The girl said the spell didn't seem very good and started ranting about random stuff at a fast pace so nobody really caught a word. Once she finished, by saying her name was Hermione Granger, Andrew spoke up.

"You know if you really want him to be yellow I can ask my Master to send me a can of spray paint," Andrew said jokingly.

"Oh now I recognise those robes, you're a Jedi aren't you," Hermione said, and it wasn't a question.

"Padawan actually," Andrew answered, somewhat dryly. "Andrew Payne."

"Ron Weasley," said Ron.

"Harry Potter," Harry added, which caused Hermione to start ranting again. The first time it was about her being muggleborn, the spells she'd practised so far and the fact that she'd learned the set books off by heart.

This time it was how much she knew about Harry, what books he was in and what house she'd like to be in. Suddenly she was gone, as was Neville, and she'd said something about changing and arriving soon.

"… Did anybody catch much of that?" Andrew asked, rather stupidly, only to receive shakes of the head in reply. "Okay," he said then fetched his school robes and changed into his uniform.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," Ron said as Andrew changed into his school robes, Harry asked Ron about what his eldest brothers did now that they were no longer at school, Ron told him that the eldest one, Charlie, was in Romania studying dragons.

"Cool!" Andrew exclaimed as Ron continued to say that his second eldest brother, Bill, was in Africa doing something for Gringotts, which got Ron onto the subject of a break-in at the bank.

Soon enough the topic changed to Quidditch, Ron explained about the four balls, the positions and which balls each player had to worry about. He was just explaining the finer points, Harry sitting and listening intently and Andrew laying on his back in his school robes, when the door opened again.

Andrew knew who one of them was, but looked up to see who the others were, Harry recognised the same boy, it was the one he'd met at Madam Malkin's.

"Is it true?" he asked "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Harry plainly, Andrew on the other hand was keeping his eyes firmly on the other two boys; they were taller than Ron and at least twice his size, all of that being muscle. The way that they were flanking the blond boy clearly stated that they were a sort of bodyguards.

Andrew had taken down robotic bodyguards before and, by the look of these two, they'd be just as brainless and slow to react.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle," the boy said carelessly, he wasn't looking at Andrew so one of the others must have been looking at them too. "And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron coughed as he tried to cover his laughter, Malfoy looked at Ron and Andrew sensed something, as if Malfoy was trying to hide something, but not from him, Harry or Ron.

"Think my name's funny do you?" he snapped at Ron. "No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford." Malfoy turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

Malfoy offered his hand to Harry, who looked him calmly in the eye. "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks."

At this, Crabbe and Goyle cracked their knuckles, reading themselves for a beat-down. Andrew however, had other ideas. Using the Force, he knocked Malfoy down to one knee, then leap-frogged over him and kicked his cronies in the face simultaneously. He then drew his lightsaber and pointed it at Crabbe's chest.

Goyle went for Andrew but let out a yelp of pain as Scabbers bit his knuckle and held on for dear life, Goyle started swinging his entire arm around, trying to get Scabbers off, and when he finally did, Scabbers hit the window and promptly fell back to sleep.

Malfoy, quickly realising that he was in the presence of a Jedi, grabbed Goyle and shoved him out of the compartment, deciding to run instead of fight, Andrew deactivated his saber and allowed Crabbe to follow them. Shortly after they left, Hermione turned up, asking what had happened.

"Met Malfoy before have you? Ron asked, picking Scabbers up by his tail, Andrew and Harry told him about their varied encounters with Malfoy in Madam Malkin's.

"I didn't get much from him, but his mother seemed a nasty piece of work," Andrew said with a shrug.

"I've heard about his family, they were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared, said they were bewitched…" Ron started, but Andrew sneezed.

"I'm sorry I'm allergic to bull…" he started.

"Don't finish that word thank you." Said Hermione curtly.

"Can we help you with something?" Ron asked, rather rudely.

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up the front to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

Ron stated that his rat was fighting and not them; then snapped at her to leave while they got changed and she left.

"In _his_ defence," Andrew started, indicating Malfoy. "There's no chance in hell that he was a follower of Vol.." he cleared his throat. "You-Know-Who. If he's our age then he couldn't have been more than a year old when he attacked Harry."

"You make a fair point," Harry said, conceding that they should give him the benefit of the doubt, just in case they ended up in the same house as Malfoy.

"Not much chance of that," Ron answered. "His family's famous for being in Slytherin."

Andrew let the topic drop and took to staring out the window. After Harry and Ron got into their robes, Ron's were a tad short on him; a voice echoed loudly.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."

The trio filled their pockets with whatever sweets were left and joined the crowd in the corridor, Andrew had to run back to his trunk to retrieve his Jedi robes, there were two reasons, one he sensed rain was soon to fall and two, the Holo-com device Jarod gave him was in the pocket.

The train slowed to a stop and people started pushing towards the doors, Andrew went with the flow, pulling his hood up in the process. By keeping his head bent low, his hood obscured his face.

It wasn't until he got off the train that he realised that Harry and Ron were quite a distance from him.

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! All right there, Harry?" Andrew heard Hagrid before he saw him; he quickly made his way through the crowd, anyone who didn't know better might have suspected him for an assassin.

"Greetings Hagrid," Andrew said softly from behind the Game Keeper, Hagrid visibly jumped and bent his knees to look at the hooded figure's face.

"Andrew? That you?" he asked, Andrew smiled and nodded.

Hagrid called for more first-years and was about to move off when Andrew asked him to wait a moment. "I have to contact my Master first," he explained while pulling out the device and pressing the button.

Soon the ghostly blue figure of Jarod Cooper flickered into life.

"I have arrived at school Master," Andrew said to the image in his hand.

" _Very well young one, be mindful of your feelings and may the Force be with you,_ " he said, his voice slightly distorted, as was his image as raindrops started to fall through it.

"Yes Master, and with you as well," Andrew replied and switching off the device and pocketing it.

Hagrid started leading the way down a path, there was no light on either side of them, Andrew was sorely tempted to pull out his lightsaber in order to gain some light. But he resisted the urge; he didn't think that Hagrid or any of the other first-years would appreciate the gesture.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called to the group behind him, "jus' round this bend here."

There were oooh's and aaah's and, from Andrew and one other first-year, there was a whistle of awe, Hogwarts looked absolutely awesome.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called signalling a fleet of boats sitting by the shore, Harry and Ron were joined by Neville and Hermione, while Andrew was in a boat with three strangers, one of which was the other boy to whistle at the sight of Hogwarts, who kept sliding angry glances at Andrew for some reason.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid from his boat to himself "Right then … FORWARD!"

At his command the fleet set sail, Andrew never cared for water travel and soon felt queasy, he'd much rather be flying over the lake.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as they approached some cliffs, everyone bent their head down as the boats passed under a curtain of ivy, they travelled along a tunnel and stepped out of the boats onto some loose pebbles. Hagrid called Neville back to the boats to give him his toad and then led them up some stairs to a set of oak doors, once he'd checked that everyone was there, and that Neville still had Trevor, he knocked three times on the door.

The door was opened and a tall witch stood there, she had a stern face and looked like she wasn't the type to annoy "(O _h well, so much for pulling pranks here_ ,)" Andrew thought as she instantly reminded him of Master Bailo, the two could have been mother and daughter except for the eyes.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid announced.

"Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here." McGonagall said while pulling the door wide, the entrance hall was large, but nothing on the entrance hall at the Jedi temple. There were no statues here, just some marble steps leading up, stone steps leading down and a few doors. Flame torches lit the room and looking up Andrew had to admit that this hall was taller than the temple's,

Andrew could hear voices and sense many minds coming from an open door to the right and presumed that the rest of the school was already in there.

But McGonagall led them to a chamber off the hall; everyone crowded in and faced her.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you can take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts." She went on to explain that they would take their classes with their house, sleep in their house dormitories and spend free time in their house common room.

"( _Translation, once we're sorted, get along with our house mate or be screwed_ ,)" Andrew thought to himself, thinking back on what Harry had said on the train. McGonagall went on to say that there were four houses, what their names were and the fact that each had its own noble history, she explained that triumphs would earn house points while rule breaking would lose points.

"At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours," she said, and soon left after mentioning that the sorting would take place in front of the school and that the first years should smarten themselves up.

As everyone started to get nervous over pretty much nothing, the boy that kept giving Andrew angry looks; spoke for the first time.

"So the rumours I heard on the train were true," he said darkly, gaining the attention of Andrew and many others, though Andrew was the only one not to turn and face him.

"What rumours would they be?" Andrew asked politely.

"A Jedi has come to Hogwarts as well." He stated with a hint of venom in his voice.

Andrew turned to him, lowering his hood and removing his damp Jedi robes "Padawan actually, or didn't you notice the braid?" he said, slightly sarcastically.

The boy scoffed "Even without that robe you stick out like a sore thumb, Jedi," he spat. "I can smell your kind a mile off!"

"Might I ask who you are exactly?" Andrew asked, getting slightly annoyed.

"Jax Starr, Sith Apprentice," he said with pride.

"Andrew Payne, Jedi Padawan," replied Andrew, offering his hand politely, Starr glanced at it with disgust.

"As if I'd want to be associated with Jedi scum!" he snapped pulling something metallic from beneath his robes, Andrew knew full well what it was and pulled his hand back before it was sliced off.

Starr activated his lightsaber, he was a Shien fighter, he held his weapon in a reverse grip which made the blade ignite to his right as he held it up expecting Andrew to strike first. Poor Neville nearly got hit in the head, but he'd backed away in time.

Andrew however was a Djem So fighter, he stood knees bent slightly, pulled his lightsaber from his school robes and activated it, holding the weapon before him, pointing straight at Starr, he too waited for his opponent to attack first.

There was a scream in the back of the room and both combatants placed their weapon away at his side as about twenty ghosts entered the room through the back wall. Andrew was surprised, since he didn't sense them coming, however he'd seen force spirits before and knew that these ghosts could do nothing more to him than make him feel a tad cold by drifting through him.

The ghosts seemed to be arguing, one that Andrew recognised as a monk was saying that they should forgive someone whereas another ghost wearing a ruff and tights was saying that someone named Peeves was giving them a bad name.

"I say what are you all doing here?" the tights wearing ghost asked as he noticed the first-years.

"New students!" shouted the large monk happily with a smile. "About to be sorted, I suppose?" there were a few nods and he continued. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" he said "My old house you know."

"Move along now," called Professor McGonagall as she returned. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." After the ghosts left McGonagall had them all line up, Andrew ended up behind Hermione with Neville behind him.

They followed McGonagall into the Great Hall, the room was lit by thousands of candles which were floating in the air, there were four very long tables, the rest of the students were sitting along either side of them; each table was laid out with golden plates and goblets, all of which were currently empty.

There was yet one more table at the top of the Hall, Andrew noticed Professor Dumbledore straight away and nodded respectively and he nodded back, Andrew presumed that all of the other adults at this table were the teachers.

McGonagall led the first-years to line up in front of the teachers table, facing the other students, Andrew noticed that the ceiling was completely black except for a lot of stars, next to him Hermione said "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in ' _Hogwarts, a History'_ ," in a low whisper.

Andrew watched in solemn silence as McGonagall placed a four legged stool before the first-years and placed a hat upon it, in all honesty Andrew was convinced that the hat was ready to completely fall apart at any second.

As Andrew started to wonder what they, the first-years, had to do he noticed everyone staring at the hat, he decided it was best to keep an eye on it too as a rip opened like a mouth and it began to sing.

It sang of itself, how it was the smartest hat in existence, Andrew couldn't really disagree since he'd never encountered a talking hat before, let alone one that could sing. He became slightly worried when it said that there wasn't anything in his head that it couldn't see. However its explanation of each house was interesting.

" _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerve and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

 _If you've a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_

 _You'll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _ _For I'm a Thinking Cap!__ _"_

Andrew was one of the first to start applauding as the hat finished singing, it took a bow and then became quite still.

"( _I wonder which house I'll end up in, hope it isn't Slytherin_ ,)" Andrew thought while trying to shut out all the small fears and worries of the first-years around him.

McGonagall stepped forward with a piece of parchment, stating that once someone's name was called, they were to place the hat on their head and sit on the stool.

"Abbott, Hannah!" was called first, she had blonde hair that was done up into pigtails, she stumbled out of the line, put on the hat, which covered her eyes, and sat down.

After a small while the hat shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!" causing the table on the far left to cheer and clap, Andrew noticed that their school robes were lined with yellow and had a sort of coat of arms over the left-hand chest, it was mostly yellow with a black badger on it.

Hannah went over to that table and took a seat.

"Bones, Susan!" McGonagall called, she too became a Hufflepuff, "Boot, Terry!" he was made a Ravenclaw, their robes were lined with blue and their badge was blue with a bronze raven on it. He walked to the table on the immediate left from where the stool was.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" also went to Ravenclaw, and "Brown, Lavender" went to Gryffindor, theirs was the table on the immediate right, their robes were lined with red and their badge was red with a golden lion on it.

"Bulstrode, Millicent" became the first Slytherin, table on the far right, and their robes were lined with green and the badge was green with a silver snake on it.

By now, Andrew had the layout of the room in his mind. Standing at the teacher's table, looking out at the students and going from left to right, the tables were Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and then Slytherin.

Next was "Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" who was sorted into …

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Andrew started to notice how some people, like himself, would take a while to be sorted by the hat, whereas others would barely have the hat touch their head before being sorted.

"Granger, Hermione!" she ran to the stool and eagerly jammed the hat onto her head, Andrew could sense the hat feeling offended at such rough treatment and couldn't help but smirk.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Andrew glanced at Ron and saw that he wasn't happy and his smirk turned to a small grin.

Next was Neville Longbottom the hat took a very long while to decide with him, but he too was sent to Gryffindor. Andrew couldn't help but feel sorry for him though, he'd fallen over going to the stool and, to add insult to injury, he'd forgotten to take the hat off and had to run back to give it to "MacDougal, Morag", much to the laughter of all but the few that felt the same as him.

Malfoy walked towards the hat, looking as though he owned the place, when his name was called and Andrew could distinctly see Dumbledore's beard through the gap between the hat and Malfoy's head when it screamed "SLYTHERIN!" he left the stool to join Crabbe and Goyle, who'd already been sorted into Slytherin, looking exceedingly proud of himself.

Several people went by; two twin girls were surprisingly split into Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and before long …

"Payne, Andrew!" McGonagall called and Andrew walked forward calmly, he placed the hat on his head and sat down calmly.

" _Hmm, interesting,_ " said the hat in Andrew's ear. "V _ery interesting. Plenty of courage, not a bad mind either, definitely talented … but where do I put you?_ "

 _'_ _I honestly don't mind, as long as it's not Slytherin, I'm_ _not_ _evil,'_ Andrew thought in reply.

" _Oh don't worry about that, Slytherin's definitely not the house for you, I can see your memories, after all, you have placed another's safety before your own more times than I can count, so you'd be best in …_ GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted and the Gryffindor table erupted with cheers as Andrew made the hat float into McGonagall's hand and Force leapt to the table, taking a seat next to Fred Weasley.

Right after Andrew, came...

"Potter, Harry!"

Andrew wasn't impressed with the whispers that he could hear breaking out around the hall, he could sense Harry's nerves flying into overdrive and it was making him feel queasy.

The hat was placed on Harry's head, covering his eyes, a good minute or two later the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and Andrew was nearly deafened by the resounding roar from the Gryffindors. He didn't even realise that he was joining in, the eldest Weasley, who happened to be a prefect, got up and shook Harry's hand, the Weasley twins yelled "We got Potter! We got Potter!", the ghost in the ruff and tights gave Harry a pat on the shoulder, making him shiver slightly and Andrew just gave Harry a pat on the back, knowing that he didn't want much fuss.

Andrew turned back to the Sorting as "Turpin, Lisa" became a Ravenclaw, "Starr, Jax" was placed into Slytherin, which, given the look of the rest of them, didn't surprise Andrew in the slightest. Ron was sorted into Gryffindor, much to the approval of his brothers, and "Zabini, Blaise" was placed into Slytherin. McGonagall rolled up the parchment and took the hat away.

Dumbledore stood up from his chair, his arms wide and the biggest smile Andrew had ever seen on any face, plastered to his.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" as he sat back down the Hall was filled with applause and cheers, and a few laughs.

"Is he … a bit mad?" Harry asked Percy, unsure if he was being rude or not.

"Mad?" said Percy incredulously. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes."

"Well a wise man once said, 'the difference between genius and insanity is measured only by success," Andrew said, referring to a muggle film he'd once watched.

"Precisely, potatoes Harry?" Percy asked, Harry's mouth fell open as he surveyed the table. Andrew brought a little of everything, save for the ketchup, to his plate with the help of the Force, filling his pockets with the mint humbugs rather than putting them on his plate.

"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly as he watched everyone eat.

"Can't you …" Harry started, but Andrew knew the answer before it was spoken; he had conversed with Force Spirits before.

"I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred years, I don't need to of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself?" said the ghost "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."

"By the Force, that's a mouthful isn't it?" Andrew said in shock.

"I know, that's why everybody calls him Nearly Headless Nick," Ron explained. "My brothers told me about you." He said to the ghost.

"I would __prefer__ you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy …" he started, sounding annoyed, but Seamus Finnigan cut in.

" _ _Nearly__ Headless?" he asked with a thick Irish accent, "How can you be __nearly__ headless?"

"You had to ask?" said Andrew, covering his eyes.

Nick looked somewhat upset and simply said "Like _this_ ," then he pulled on his left ear and his head fell onto his shoulder, showing that someone had tried to behead him, but did a very bad job of it. He flipped his head back into position and changed the topic of conversation, the House Championship, apparently Slytherin had gone the past six years with winning the cup.

"Well, we'll just have to change that this year won't we?" Andrew stated much to Nick's approval.

When the pudding arrived Andrew then chose to be slightly picky, only choosing strawberry ice cream, jam doughnuts and strawberries. Harry grabbed a treacle tart and the talk moved to families.

Seamus was half muggle, on his dad's side, and half wizard, thanks to his mother. Neville was brought up by his Grandmother, and for years his family were convinced that he was a muggle. It wasn't until he was eight that he showed magic, his uncle had 'accidentally' dropped him from an upstairs window but thankfully Neville had bounced all the way down the garden and into the road, unharmed.

Hermione however was talking to Percy, about lessons typically. Suddenly Harry said "Ouch!" and slapped a hand to his forehead.

"You alright?" Andrew asked quietly.

"What is it?" asked Percy.

"N-nothing, I'm fine," Harry replied "Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?"

Percy was slightly taken aback that Harry knew Quirrell already, but told him that it was the Potions Master, Professor Snape, apparently he really wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, which was being held by Quirrell.

Once the puddings had vanished, Dumbledore stood up again, it was impressive how everyone seemed to immediately quiet down, Dumbledore cleared his throat, unnecessarily, and spoke.

"Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." He said, looking pointedly at Fred and George. "I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Dumbledore finished and a few people laughed, Harry included, though Andrew frowned in thought.

"He's not serious?" Harry asked Percy in a whisper.

"I sensed no deception from him," Andrew answered.

"It's odd though, normally if a place is forbidden he gives a reason for it, like the forest having dangerous beasts living in it, I would have thought that he'd at least have told us prefects," added Percy.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school anthem!" cried Dumbledore, the other teachers didn't look too impressed, Dumbledore made the words appear where everyone could see them. "Everyone pick their favourite tune, and off we go!"

It was the most ridiculous thing Andrew had ever experienced, he sang along too, but there was absolutely no rhythm, since no two people had picked the same tune, Fred and George being the only exception who were doing a funeral march.

After everyone had finished singing they were sent to bed, the Gryffindor first-years following Percy, through the crowds, out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall.

Harry and Ron seemed to be lagging behind Andrew, like them he was tired and full of food, but unlike them he was also on a sugar rush from having ten humbugs in the past minute.

For some reason they came to a halt, there were several walking sticks floating in mid-air, Percy took a tentative step towards them and the started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves," he whispered to the first-years. "A poltergeist." Andrew stepped towards the sticks and they threw themselves at him too.

Andrew sighed. "Child's play," he said sounding board, he pulled his lightsabre out and slashed the sticks into twigs, then used the Force to throw the pieces, while putting his weapon away, at the only presence that Andrew could feel, but not see.

"OUCH!"

"Peeves; show yourself!" Percy commanded.

There was a rude sound, much like a balloon when the air was let out of it, a small pop and a little blue man with wicked dark eyes and a big mouth appeared, he was sitting cross-legged in the air, clutching what was left of the walking sticks.

He might have looked like a Jedi who was deep in meditation, thanks to the crossed legs and the floating, excepting that he was up-side-down.

"Ooooooh!" he said while cackling "Ickle firsties! What fun!"

"Go away Peeves or the Bloody Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" shouted Percy, the poltergeist stuck his tongue out and vanished, dropping his sticks on Neville, but Andrew stopped them from hitting him.

"Nice work there Andrew," Percy said politely, the Jedi just shrugged and continued to follow as they heard Peeves rattling coats of armour as he flew off.

"You want to watch out for Peeves," Percy told them as they walked. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can really control him, he won't even listen to us Prefects. Here we are."

At the end of the corridor they were now walking along was a portrait of a rather large woman in a pink silk dress, she asked for a password, which Percy said was ' _Caput Draconis',_ and swung forward to reveal a very large hole. They all scrambled through, Andrew giving Neville a 'Force leg up', and found a very welcoming, round room full of squashy armchairs.

They were directed to their dormitories, the boys climbed the spiral staircase and found a room with six four poster beds, each with velvet red curtains. They got changed into their bed clothes, their trunks had already been brought up, and got into bed. Ron mentioned how good the food was, Harry fell asleep at once and Andrew knew that he wasn't going to get to sleep anytime soon, so he decided to meditate for an hour or two to relax.

He sat comfortably on his bed, cross-legged, closed his eyes and breathed deeply and calmly, just as Jarod had taught him. While he meditated, various objects lifted out of their positions, Harry's shoes, Ron's robes, Seamus' wand; small things, nothing more.

He was thinking over the events of the day, in all honesty he shouldn't have held his weapon at Crabbe's chest, but when he thought about it … he knew that doing nothing would have caused harm to his new friends.

Soon he was sensing what his room mates were dreaming, Ron was dreaming about food, Dean about football, Seamus about his family, Neville about being a gardener and Harry was close to waking from a mild nightmare. Andrew quickly placed all the objects he'd moved back to their homes and stopped meditating. If someone disturbed him, he would've dropped everything and he was just starting to lift a few trunks, the noise would've woken at least one person up.

Harry awoke with a start, sweating and shaking, but being half asleep, his mind was weakened.

"Relax," Andrew said, drifting a hand in his direction and Harry's breathing returned to normal. "You want to go back to sleep, and not remember any of this" he said with another wave of his hand.

Harry quietly repeated Andrew's words, though saying 'I' and not 'you', and turned over to go back to sleep.

Andrew quietly chuckled to himself, that was his first successful attempt at a mind trick, but then again, he was certain he'd have never tricked Harry so easily if he were wide awake. Now feeling tired, Andrew joined his room mates in dreamland.


	3. Learning Magic

**Chapter 3 – Learning Magic**

Andrew never was a morning person, even less so when he'd not had much sleep, but groggily sensing that Dean was about to activate his lightsaber got him moving.

"Whoa!" Dean exclaimed as the weapon was pulled from his grasp and into Andrew's hand, which was barely sticking out from under his covers.

"Don't play with this thing, it could kill you," Andrew croaked while falling out of bed with a thump.

He got dressed slowly and followed Harry and Ron down to breakfast, he noticed the whispering instantly. It followed them all the way down to the Great Hall, where they all pretty much had the same meal.

Their first lesson was Transfiguration; they got all the way to the third floor before Nearly Headless Nick told them it was on the first floor. So they started running back down, halfway between the second and first floors a step decided to vanish from under Andrew's foot and he went sailing through the air as he tripped.

He bounced twice and landed on the first floor, sprawled all over the place. He was limping and had to do so while Force running, just to keep up with Harry and Ron.

They got into the class and thankfully McGonagall wasn't there, though there was a cat sitting suspiciously on her desk.

"Made it," said Ron to Harry as Andrew limped behind them, it was just a sprained ankle. "Can you imagine the look on McGonagall's face if we were late?"

At those very words the cat leapt off the desk and turned into Professor McGonagall, she looked very stern, Andrew was surprised, which didn't happen often.

"That was bloody brilliant!" Ron said.

"Why thank you for that assessment Mr Weasley," she answered, not liking his use of language. "Perhaps it would be more useful if I transfigured Mr Potter, Mr Payne and yourself into a pocket watch, that way one of you might be on time."

"We got lost," Harry answered.

"Then perhaps a map," she suggested.

"Well that leaves me out," said Andrew while limping past. "Too many people tell me to 'get lost' for me to be of any use as a map, I could be the watch if you like."

Professor McGonagall's eye twitched, Andrew wasn't certain if it was from annoyance or an attempt to not laugh.

"I trust you don't require a map to find your seats?" she asked sarcastically.

During the course of the day Andrew had another round with Peeves and won again, this time without his lightsaber. Peeves had tried to drop something green and slimy on Andrew and he just dodged it and sent an army of suits of armour throwing themselves at the poltergeist, who then decided not to keep bothering.

Harry, Ron and Andrew also had a nasty run-in with Filch, he'd caught them trying to open a door to the forbidden corridor, just as Andrew was going to try using the Force. He'd refused to believe that they were lost, but thankfully Professor Quirrell saved them.

Andrew didn't know why, but he got a very nasty vibe from Filch's cat, Mrs Norris. For some reason she wouldn't stop staring at him, he was tempted to try a mind trick, but thought he'd get into trouble from Filch if he did.

Andrew seemed to be slightly ahead of everyone else in astronomy, since it was a required subject at the temple. Herbology was a deathly fascinating subject too, especially after one plant, which he could've sworn had eyes, decided to bite Harry's backside. He was surprisingly let off for his use of language then.

How anyone managed to stay awake in History of Magic was beyond Andrew, he barely managed History of the Force back home, but at least there the Master in charge tried her best to keep things interesting.

The ghost teaching here would just drone on and on in a monotone voice, Professor Binns had apparently fallen asleep in front of the fire in the staff room one night and when he got up the next day, he'd just left his body behind, it was unclear if he even knew he was dead.

Their first Charms lesson was highly entertaining, for one thing Professor Flitwick, a very tiny man who had to stand on a pile of books just to see over his desk, had fallen off his stack when he'd read Harry's name, for another he had them learning the theory of levitation so that they'd be ready to perform the matching spell.

"Umm, sir? I can already levitate objects." Andrew said with a raised hand while lifting an entire pile of books, using the Force of course, with the other.

"Yes, well Mr Payne you'll just need to learn how to do that with your wand as well," Flitwick answered in a squeaky chuckle.

Defence Against the Dark Arts turned out to be slightly disappointing. Quirrell seemed to be more scared of his subject than the fact that at least two people in his class, Gryffindors and Slytherins were in one or two classes together, were carrying potentially fatal weapons.

After four days of feeling like total idiots, Harry, Ron and Andrew actually managed to get down to breakfast without getting lost once. They had potions with the Slytherins and Andrew wasn't looking forward to it, mainly because their teacher was the Head of Slytherin House, which meant they might be able to get away with more in his class than with other teachers.

Post had arrived, it caught Harry and every first-year muggle-born off guard the first morning, but now they were used to it. Andrew got another letter from home, this time 'oh dear' from his parents, he hadn't told them about coming to Hogwarts, it had completely slipped his mind.

 _Dear Andrew,_

 _ _I can understand you forgetting to keep in regular touch with us due to your training, but your father and I would much prefer hearing news like this from__ you __rather than your Master.__

 _But don't get us wrong, we're proud of you no matter what happens, we have sent a letter to your new Headmaster, asking that he possibly explain everything to us, because we're not sure what it all means._

 _But on the brighter side, at least we now know where to send your birthday gifts, which reminds me, can your owl carry a lot of weight, I don't want to harm him by overworking him._

 _Please keep in touch, or ask Master Cooper to do so, he does a better job of keeping our fears at bay, and have fun at school (I miss being able to say that)._

 _All our love,_

 _Mum and Dad_

Andrew chuckled at his mother's last comment. He quickly wrote a reply, saying he was sorry for forgetting, that he would check with Dumbledore on any possible procedures on birthday presents being delivered and write them again once Snowfire returned to him. Snowfire enjoyed a bit of Andrew's pumpkin juice and bacon then flew off to deliver Andrew's reply.

Hedwig had delivered Harry a letter for the first time ever, normally she just came to stick with Snowfire. Harry hastily replied to his letter and sent her off, mentioning that Hagrid wanted to have tea with him that afternoon, he suggested that Andrew and Ron come too and they agreed.

Potions lessons were conducted in the dungeons, where it wasn't exactly warm, Snape seemed to 'feel' evil to Andrew, but maybe it was just his own emotions getting the better of him. "( _Even Master Cooper would be shaken by this guy,_ )" Andrew thought, when Snape's head snapped in Andrew's direction, he wondered if Snape could read minds.

His eyes looked malicious and cruel, and when he spoke, that whisper sent a shiver up and down nearly everyone's spine.

He spoke of the subtle art and exact science that was potion making, he told them that he could teach them much, as long as they weren't as stupid as most students, his eyes bore into Andrew's when he mentioned stupid students and the Jedi felt slightly insulted.

Snape started picking on Harry for some reason, asking him questions, which Hermione seemed to know the answers to, that Andrew only vaguely remembered reading about in his text book.

When Harry decided to be defiant, Andrew had to repress the urge to laugh. He smirked anyway, but Snape didn't look happy at all.

"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione, who had been standing up when Harry shot a retort at Snape. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone, taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

Andrew had seen that coming a mile away and had started writing from the moment Snape said 'well', he also wasn't surprised when Snape took points from Gryffindor, okay he was a little surprised when Snape only took one point, but wasn't about to complain.

Snape wasn't too happy about Andrew and Jax using the Force to assist themselves, but he'd been informed that they were to practise at every possible opportunity, so to make up for it they were to both work alone.

Andrew wasn't doing bad, but it seemed that nobody could do better than Malfoy, Jax came a close second, but Andrew was certain that he and Hermione were doing better, he brushed that thought aside for the moment.

At one point Neville melted a cauldron and ended up with some severe boils growing all over his body, Snape ordered Seamus to take him to the hospital wing and blamed Harry for letting Neville get something wrong and took another House Point.

At this point Andrew was close to seething with Snape.

"Out of curiosity, Jedi, I've seen members of your _council_ get angry and even use Force Lightning to … shall we say 'let off steam', why don't you?" Jax asked Andrew, they were working next to each other and obviously the Sith could sense Andrew's growing anger.

"Because I'm not sure I'd be able to stop, if I start," Andrew answered. "Besides, I'd prefer not to get expelled for attacking and possibly killing a teacher."

"Humph, makes sense I suppose," Jax muttered.

"Can I ask you something Jax?" Andrew said.

"You just did Jedi, but I doubt that was your question," answered Jax as he and Andrew took their cauldrons off the heat and added the last ingredients and started to pack away.

"Ah, there you go, I've introduced myself to you as Andrew Payne, so why do you refuse to call me

anything other than Jedi?" Andrew asked.

"Because you're a Jedi," Jax answered bluntly as he set up a timer for his potion to cool before he could pour it into a phial.

"And if another Jedi were in this conversation?" Andrew asked slyly.

"Than I'd be forced to use your last names!" Jax snapped, his hand twitching for his lightsaber.

"That would be preferable to just being called 'Jedi' Jax, I'm a person, kindly treat me as such," Andrew answered darkly.

"Enough both of you!" Snape snapped, both students knew that he was standing there and listening to their conversation the whole time, but didn't really care."Starr get your hand away from that weapon before I confiscate it!"

Jax growled and reluctantly moved his hand away.

"Professor, there's no need to stop him, I could easily take him," Andrew taunted Jax with a smirk.

"I couldn't care less if you two decide to fight, but do so out of range of my class room, I don't want anything damaged!" snapped Snape.

That was the only lesson that they had for that day, at nearly three o'clock the three boys walked to Hagrid's Hut, he had a huge dog, called Fang, and Andrew took to the animal like a fish to water, the dog was awesome.

They talked about everything, from the twins being chased away from the forest by Hagrid, to Filch, who Hagrid called 'that old git', and Mrs Norris, to Harry's fears that Snape had it in for Harry, that subject Hagrid tried his best to avoid, even to the point of talking about Charlie, Ron's eldest brother, Harry had tried talking about the break-in at Gringotts, it seemed that it had happened when they'd met at Diagon Ally.

Hagrid had avoided that subject too and now the three lads were walking back for dinner, their pockets weighed down by rock cakes, which were more like rocks, which they were too polite to refuse.

The next day, being Saturday, Andrew had decided to sleep in, he'd regretted that when he woke up and looked right into a set of icy grey-blue eyes, he jumped and Mel laughed.

"How in Yoda's name did you get into this tower … AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THE BOYS DORMITORY!?" Andrew yelled, causing Ron to snort awake "You want to go back to sleep," Andrew said with a wave of his hand, but it didn't work and Ron ignored him, maybe snapping wasn't a good idea for mind tricks.

Mel laughed again and hugged Andrew, he returned the gesture as Jarod walked in, the hug said it all, 'it doesn't matter how or why, I missed you and I'm here now'.

"Nice bed, I can see us having trouble getting you to come home at all," Jarod joked, Andrew half-heartedly threw a pillow at his Master who didn't even need to raise a finger to make it hover in the air and throw it back, Mel released Andrew and he realised this in itself was a test of his skills.

Andrew dodged the pillow and sent every other soft object at his Master, using the Force and with everything he had, Jarod stopped most of them, but one pillow hit him.

"Well done, you've improved," he said, he motioned for Mel to follow him and they left, Andrew got dressed and ran for breakfast, he ate quickly and attempted to find his mentor and friend, Harry followed him, having been at breakfast when Andrew turned up and hurriedly ate his meal.

Jarod and Mel were sitting on the grass by the lake, meditating along with Dela.

"Hello again Harry," Mel said without turning.

"That's a little creepy," Harry stated feeling unnerved.

"Well how else do you think nobody ever sneaks up on?" Andrew asked rhetorically.

The three Jedi stood up and turned "Harry, you may want to move," Dela suggested as they turned to him.

After Harry had taken the advice Mel stepped forward, Andrew knew what was going to happen next and drew his lightsaber, Mel drew her blade from her left sleeve and that told Andrew which style she was planning on using.

She was starting off using Soresu; she'd be remaining highly defensive while Andrew stuck with switching between Djem So and Shien.

Their sabres ignited and Andrew charged, his blue blade clashed with her green one and it was on.

Within minutes Mel was grounded, Andrew had parried one of her attacks, countered and then switched to Shien, which went more with speed, and took her feet out from under her; she was now sprawled on the floor with Andrew's sabre pointing at her throat.

"Give?" he asked, smirking.

She shook her head and Force-pushed him, leapt to her feet and drew a blade from her right sleeve, she was now using Jar'Kai, two blades simultaneously. In her left hand was a purple lightsaber and her right hand held a green blade, one would be offensive and the other defensive. The trick was figuring out which was which, but the worst was how the two of them had attracted a crowd.

Taking the crowd's distraction as her opportunity, Mel charged, Andrew blocked and flipped over her and attempted to attack from behind. Madam Pomfrey was complaining to both of the Jedi Masters about what the Padawans were doing, but since she was here she could fix any damage, should there be any.

Their duel continued, Mel had truly become a master of Jar'Kai since she was able to so easily switch which blades did what. Her one weakness was her stamina, she tended to put too much power and effort into her attacks. Eventually Andrew defeated her, opting to slice her leg when she left an opening, he'd hated himself for doing it, and Jarod scolded him, but not for injuring her, but for holding back.

"( _I didn't want to hurt her_ )" Andrew thought darkly.

Someone started clapping slowly and everyone looked over to see a tall woman who could easily have been related to Malfoy, she definitely had his hair. But one quick glance revealed that she wasn't even a witch, she had a lightsaber at her belt, by the looks of things it was double-bladed, Malfoy had been fascinated by Jax and his use of the Force, so clearly he had no Force-Sensitive relatives. At the same time Andrew didn't recognise this woman, which added up to just one thing, this woman was a Sith Lord.

"I must say that was an excellent display, I'm eager to see how you would perform against someone without holding back young Jedi," he offered her hand politely, her eyes asking an obvious question.

"Andrew Payne," Andrew said while accepting her hand.

"Drexia Lee, Sith Master. I believe you've met my Apprentice Jaxon," she replied.

"Jedi! Get away from my mother!" Jax bellowed as he marched down the lawn towards them.

"Speak of the devil," Drexia sighed.

"Mother?" Jarod inquired; his hand on Andrew's shoulder.

"Adoptive," she answered simply, "Jaxon, I was just watching this young man in combat, I would like to see how you fair against him."

Jax smirked. "It would be my greatest pleasure to kill him my Master," he said formally.

"No, you are not to kill him my young apprentice," she said scolding, "you may be training to be an assassin, but I don't want you killing people at school." She looked at the Jedi Master, "Minimum settings to be safe?"

Jarod nodded and pulled Andrew aside "How do you feel about this?"

"Master, that guy has been digging at me from the moment I met him" Andrew said scowling, then he smirked, "I'd very much like to take him down a peg,"

Jarod smiled "Very well then," he supervised Andrew placing his weapon onto its safety level and walked back to Dela and Poppy Pomfrey and was joined by Drexia.

"They're only _just_ getting to a safe level? Why not earlier?" Poppy demanded.

"Andrew would rather saw his head off with a blunt spoon than cause harm to Mel," Dela answered.

"Jaxon however, wouldn't think twice about killing someone, let alone a rival," Drexia added.

"And Andrew just told me that Jax has been annoying him all week, he'd like to take him down a peg or two, trust me Madam Pomfrey, if __they__ had their weapons at the full power, they'd kill each other and not be too bothered. Could you be ready for when it's over? Even at the lowest setting, a lightsabre will cause a __very__ severe burn." Jarod finished.

Poppy nodded and everyone gathered backed, very far, away, somehow knowing what was coming next.

Andrew ignited his sabre and moved into a Shien stance, Jax activated his weapon and held it in the reverse-grip Shien stance.

Andrew held his weapon in both hands above his head, his leg poised to kick off the ground and charge.

Jax on the other hand held his weapon flush against his arm, standing side ways, from Andrew's point of view, but Andrew knew it was a ploy, a trick to make opponents think that he wasn't ready to fight.

Andrew moved first, charging forward and bringing his weapon down on Jax, but he simply swung forward and blocked with little effort. Andrew then went with a kick to Jax's face, Jax spun and went low, trying to burn Andrew's legs but he'd jumped over the blade and Force pushed, sending himself into the air.

Jax shot lightning from his fingertips and Andrew used his sapphire blade to absorb the energy as he came back down to the ground. Jax shot forward, spinning and making a downward diagonal slash, which Andrew dodged with little effort, grabbing the Sith's wrist and spinning swiftly, Jax's momentum was turned against him and he landed hard in the lake.

"I'd suggest you give up here Jax," Andrew taunted while summoning Jax's weapon to his hand and pointing it at its owner.

To say that Jax was annoyed would have been only partially true, he was furious. Jax got to his feet and allowed all of his rage to come to the surface, down his arms, to his hands where lightning shot in Andrew's general direction, it was powerful, but not well aimed.

Andrew blocked with his blade and decided to give Jax his own, he hurled it at him and it stuck in Jax's left shoulder, burning through both clothes and skin, it was painful enough to distract him and stop the onslaught of lightning.

Jax pulled out the weapon and got back into his starting stance and Andrew switched back to Djem So, they both charged together, but this time Andrew slid along the ground, between Jax's legs, and brought himself to his feet behind Jax.

Jax obviously wasn't expecting this and was punished by several slices to his back, had this been a real fight, he'd be dead by now and that angered him even more, the pain in his back was too great, he fell to his knees, close to unconsciousness.

He fought through the pain and released his rage in a flurry of attacks, Andrew couldn't keep up with all of them, he started to go completely of the defensive, what didn't help was Jax using lightning and other Force powers with his free hand, within about a minute, Andrew was beaten, battered, bruised and burned all over.

The Slytherins who were watching cheered and roared over Andrew's defeat, the Jedi Masters applauded politely while Mel dashed forward to help her fellow Padawan, holding one of her lightsabers against him, she didn't trust this guy as far as she could Force throw him.

"You want some too girly?!" Jax demanded, getting in Mel's face. She replied by simply pushing him away.

"You come anywhere near him again and I'll kill you!" she threatened with venom in her voice; Drexia came over and offered to help Mel move Andrew over to Poppy.

Andrew was breathing heavily, his breath coming out in wheezes. "I apologise Master Jedi," said Drexia with a bow "I didn't expect my son to go this far."

"It wasn't a challenge, he'd been worn down by her," snapped Jax, to which Mel glared at him.

Drexia wasn't too pleased with what Jax had done, and even less so by what he was saying, so, as was traditional with the Sith, she punished him by gripping his neck through the Force.

She ignored his gagging sounds, "You are being highly disrespectful, my _young_ Apprentice, an attitude like yours is unworthy of being a Sith, you __will__ begin to at least be civilised towards the Jedi or you will be expelled from our ranks, and you know what __that__ means," she finished her small lecture and released him, he'd been lifted into the air slightly and therefore he dropped to the ground with a thud on his knees.

"Please inform your student that if my son should continue to be … hostile … I want to know immediately." She said to Jarod and left, telling Jax to continue his training.

The rest of the day was spent with Andrew getting over that fight, Pomfrey had done wonders for the burns, though the pain was still subsiding, but he wanted to show his Master and friend around, Dumbledore said it was fine, but insisted that McGonagall join them, just to make sure they didn't get lost.

Dela had opted to speak with the teaching staff and stayed in the Great Hall, they had just finished lunch.

The first stop was the dungeons, where Snape reluctantly explained his subject, demonstrating at the same time by mixing a strong pain killing potion for Andrew, after they'd left Jarod mentioned that he got a bad vibe coming from Snape.

"Same here Master," Andrew had answered. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he could read minds."

Next was the Transfiguration class where McGonagall explained her subject, she was just as direct as Snape, but seemed less reluctant. She showed them some of the more advanced spells of her field by changing her desk into a pig and back again.

The next stop was the library, Mel was speechless at the sight of the place, it had to be at least three times the size of the Jedi library, but unfortunately not a single book was fictional, nothing but facts in here.

Without leaving the second floor they stopped in Professor Flitwick's classroom, he explained the subject of Charms, mentioning that Andrew was slightly ahead of the rest of the class in his levitation magic.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Andrew said calmly while slowly waving his wand to the right and then giving it a casual flick, this caused a nearby chair to start lifting off the ground.

"Somewhat interesting," observed Jarod, "I take it you're forced to learn at the same pace as your peers."

"Sadly yes, Master." Andrew responded, trying not to let on how he felt a little held back.

They continued onto Defence Against the Dark Arts on the third floor, Quirrell was pleased to meet the two other Jedi and was only too happy to explain his subject in his stuttering voice.

"He seemed to be rather terrified didn't he?" Mel asked after they left, they stopped, only briefly, on the fourth floor, History of Magic, since they got the general idea simply from the name of the subject.

After that McGonagall showed them the Astronomy Tower where Professor Sinistra explained what she taught, she and Jarod had a rather long conversation about the heavens, Andrew and Mel exchanged knowing looks with McGonagall.

"I've never seen that look on his face before," Andrew said, giving Mel a light nudge with his elbow.

"She's never show an interest in men since she started teaching," McGonagall added, thinking back to when she was a student at the school. "She used to when she was a girl but that's teenage life for you."

"You'd be amazed how little that goes on in the order, Professor," Mel responded. "We have rules we need to follow, complicated ones."

Next was a complete tour of Gryffindor Tower, where Andrew and Jarod found out the hard way that men were not permitted in the girl's dormitories, an alarm of some kind went off and the stairs melded into a slide, sending Andrew and Jarod falling face first into the smooth surface, much to McGonagall's amusement.

Groaning, Andrew got to his feet. "You knew that was going to happen," he accused his head of house, causing her and Mel to start giggling. "Consider yourself warned, Professor, I owe you one!"

"Oh no, I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you Minerva," Jarod cautioned, having been on the receiving end of Andrew's vengeance.

Professor Sprout happily explained the various plants that she taught students to care for, when the Venomous Tentacular bit Mel on her backside and she swore at it, Sprout didn't even bat an eye, however McGonagall kindly asked Mel to mind her language.

"Don't worry about it Minerva, everyone says _something_ along those lines when that thing gets them," Sprout said.

Their last stop was the Quidditch Pitch, where the Ravenclaw team were holding a training session, they offered Andrew a chance to see how he would do for his second year, when he could tryout for the Gryffindor team, but Andrew respectfully declined, saying it would be rude to do so while he was showing Jarod and Mel around.

Once the tour was over, it was dinner time, after which Jarod wanted to observe Andrew while he meditated. While they ate quietly, Andrew looked over at Professor McGonagall, trying to decide how he was going to get her back, when Mel suddenly decided to levitate a cream pie and splatter it into his face.

"What the hall was that for!" Andrew yelled while wiping cream off of his face.

"Just the fun of it," she answered coyly, ducking as someone shouted 'food fight' and caused multiple people to start throwing food. Andrew took the opportunity to get his revenge on McGonagall by hovering two cream pies up to the teacher's table and crashing them onto either side of her head.

Eventually the Head Boy and Girl, with assistance from the Prefects, had stopped the fight, since it was Mel who'd started it the teachers couldn't exactly give her a detention, so they just sent everyone to get cleaned up.

The three visiting Jedi were given spare rooms to stay in for the night, they would train Andrew for the whole next day and then return home during the Sunday night.

During Sunday Andrew not only faced off against Mel, but Jarod too, they also focused on lifting multiple heavy objects with the Force, and to finish off the day they all had a Force run race around the lake, in which Andrew came second, Dela had come first and Jarod had tripped and come last.

So now it was Monday and back to the normal routine, Andrew, Harry and Ron had stopped being late for lessons, but they found that they had yet another lesson with the Slytherins, Flying lessons would be taking place on Thursdays.

Harry wasn't too pleased about messing up in front of Malfoy on a broom, but Andrew and Ron convinced him that he'd do alright. Andrew on the other hand was looking forward to what he thought would be __real__ flying, cockpits always kept the wind from flying through a pilots hair, true anybody could be skilled in a pilot's seat, but few got the pleasure of flying naturally, Andrew couldn't wait.

During the week, everybody in the first year, Muggle-borns excluded, started boasting about how much experience they'd had in flying on brooms, though Andrew did go off the handle a little at Malfoy and his Slytherin gang.

"For your information Malfoy, I happen to be one of the best pilots in the Jedi order, if something can get off the ground, I can fly it, and I'll prove it in the air this Thursday!" he'd snapped before storming off.

During the next two days Andrew did nothing towards Malfoy other than glare, he'd nearly punched him on Thursday morning when he'd stolen Neville's Remembrall, but McGonagall had noticed trouble quickly and Malfoy got away by saying that he was only looking, he returned it to Neville and left.

Now it was three thirty in the afternoon and everyone was gathered around a bunch of broomsticks, most of them looked nervous, Hermione and Neville being key amongst them, Neville had never flown in his life and Hermione was clearly scared of heights.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, had iron-grey hair and blazing yellow eyes, if she was pale-skinned, Andrew would be convinced that she was a vampire.

She definitely wasn't the patient type, she ordered them to stand by a broomstick and told them how to easily move a broom into their hands, Harry, Malfoy, Andrew and Jax seemed to be the only ones to get it first time, everyone else either had a broom that rolled over or just didn't move at all.

They were shown how to mount a broom properly; Madam Hooch adjusted grips where needed and then gave orders to take off on her whistle.

Neville had kicked off the ground early and ended up falling from at least twenty feet, Andrew caught him before he'd hit the ground, using the Force, but poor Neville was too terrified to try again.

Hooch had everyone else up in the air in under a minute, first they just took off and touched back down again, basics really; soon they were running a course of magical rings, the person that completed the course in the quickest time would receive fifty House Points.

It was while Hermione was flying the course, at a snails pace, that Harry noticed Malfoy playing with Neville's Remembrall.

"Give that here Malfoy," Harry told him quietly.

Malfoy just smiled evilly "No, I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect, how about up a tree?"

Madam Hooch was too busy giving Hermione encouragement to notice Malfoy jump onto his broom and fly off, Harry hot on his flying heels.

Malfoy wasn't too pleased that Harry was finding flight so easy, Harry told him to return the Remembrall or be knocked off his broom, Malfoy tried to sneer at Harry, but his worried look ruined the effect, Harry shot at him, but Malfoy dodged, barely.

"No Crabbe and Goyle to save your neck up here Malfoy," Harry taunted.

Malfoy then decided to give in and hurled the glass ball into the air and returned to the ground, the ball reflected the sun's light and caught Hooch's attention as Harry streaked across the sky after it, the ball was going for the castle, just next to Professor McGonagall's office window, but before it could smash, or Harry could fly through her window, Harry flipped over in mid-air and caught the Remembrall.

To say that Hooch was angry would be untrue … she was incensed.

She was bellowing at him and not letting anyone explain in his defence, when Professor McGonagall ordered Harry to leave with her, Andrew and Ron were convinced that he'd be expelled.

While Harry was gone, Hooch had everyone else flying the course, by the time Harry came back, much to everyone's surprise, it was just Andrew to go.

Harry had a rather shocked look on his face, McGonagall exchanged a few whispered words with Hooch and she nodded.

"Potter, you're not to fly this course, as punishment for your actions you're to stay firmly on the ground, is that understood?" Hooch barked, Harry nodded quickly, wanting nothing more than to avoid anymore trouble and Hooch told Andrew to fly.

It wasn't really one course, but more like five that melded into each other. The fastest so far was Malfoy at five minutes and four seconds.

Andrew shot forward into the first course, a simple lap, he finished in less than fifty seconds, the second course was exactly the same, but with smaller rings, Andrew finished with the same time. The third course required Andrew to fly up and down through small rings, he finished in just over a minute; he was at two minutes and thirty eight seconds so far, he was matching Malfoy.

The fourth course had all the difficulties so far, as well as tight turns; Andrew flew them perfectly, so far not having made a single difference for anyone else, however when he came to a turn where everyone else had either slowed right down or crashed into a wall, he flipped onto his hands, fell to his right, kicked off of one wall and flew through the ring without either slowing down __or__ crashing, he finished course four in a minute and a half.

The fifth and final course had small rings, various heights, tight turns and just to make things interesting, the rings were moving. Andrew managed to complete that course in precisely fifty two seconds, since it was the shortest.

"Congratulations Mr Payne, you completed the entire course in exactly five minutes, beating Mr Malfoy by four seconds," Madam Hooch yelled up to him.

Andrew dived, somersaulted off the broom and onto the ground, catching his broom behind his back.

"As I said Malfoy, you get it in the air, I'll fly it!" he yelled triumphantly while pointing at the Slytherins. "Haden Christianson, eat your heart out!" he twirled his broom in his hand and laid it across his shoulders.

All those who had watched muggle movies got the joke, and laughed, and Madam Hooch awarded fifty points to Gryffindor then dismissed the class.

At dinner Harry told his two best friends what had happened when McGonagall had taken him away, Ron was impressed and Andrew congratulated him on his achievement.

" _Seeker,_ but first-years never get to play, you've got to be the youngest player in …" Ron started.

"A century, according to Wood, I start training next week but don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret," Harry finished.

Fred and George walked in and congratulated Harry in hushed tones, mentioning that they were Gryffindor's Beaters; they were closely followed by Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Jax.

"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?" Malfoy asked, much to the amusement of the other three.

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," Harry replied coolly.

"I'd take you on any time on my own," snapped Malfoy, causing Andrew to make a move.

"Fancy saying that again with a lightsabre at your throat?" Andrew asked threateningly.

"I'll take you up on that Payne," Jax growled.

"When and where, Starr?"

"Tonight if you want."

"Same here Potter," Malfoy chipped in, "wizard's duel, wands only, no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before I suppose?"

"Of course he has, I'm his second, who's yours?" Ron said, throwing himself into the conversation and saving Harry a little embarrassment.

While Malfoy sized up Crabbe and Goyle, Andrew answered Jax.

"You're on Jax, you've been bugging me for a rematch ever since you finished what another Padawan started, you want a Duel of the Fates, you've got one!" he yelled in a whisper, trying not to gain the attention of the teachers.

"Crabbe," Malfoy said answering Ron's question. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room, that's always unlocked."

"What's a wizard's duel?" Harry asked as the Slytherins walked away. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"

Ron explained that a second took over a fight if the first combatant died, but in this case that wasn't likely since the most Harry or Malfoy could do was throw sparks at each other.

Hermione turned up and tried to convince them not to bother, but they pretty much ignored her. "What I want to know is; what's a 'Duel of the Fates'?" Ron asked.

"It's what most people call a fight between a Jedi and a Sith, in most occasions it's to the death, but I guarantee that won't happen. He won't beat me again," Andrew explained.

"I've seen one of those," Hermione piped up.

"Are you __still__ here?" Ron demanded, but now it was her turn to ignore him.

"I was shopping for Christmas presents one year, and this Sith Lord tried to kill someone, but a nearby Jedi jumped in the way, when it was over the Sith Lord was in pieces and most of the centre was in ruins, the television shop got hit worst," She explained.

"Force lightning I'd imagine," Andrew said thoughtfully, she nodded.

"And that's even more reason why you're bound to get caught, Andrew and Jax will tear the place apart!" she exclaimed.

"Not likely," Andrew laughed, "I know the exact duel you're on about, Saturday December seventeenth, nineteen eighty-eight. It began at ten-fifteen in the morning and was over at one-oh-five in the afternoon. The Jedi was Zan Axfow, he's the head of the healing arts in London, the Sith was Joseph Metro and his target was one of Margaret Thatcher's aides, his name was struck from the record to protect his privacy." he recited.

They all stared at him. "How the hell did you know all that?" Ron asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione answered. "He has a photographic memory."

"Correction, an eidetic memory, 'photographic' memory is a misnomer," Andrew added. "Anyway, those two fighters were fully trained and in their prime, me and Jax are like Harry and Malfoy in that sense, neither of us has enough knowledge of the Force to cause any real damage, except to each other.

Hermione tried once more to get the three boys to reconsider fighting, but walked away when she realised they were _all_ ignoring her.


	4. Midnight Duels and Trolls

**Chapter 4 – Midnight Duels and Trolls**

That evening Andrew meditated until he heard Ron whisper, "Half past eleven, we'd better go."

They got off their beds, made sure they had their wands or, in Andrew's case, lightsaber and left the dormitory. They got to the common room when a lamp was turned on, startling Harry and Ron.

It was Hermione.

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry." She said.

" _You!_ Go back to bed!" Ron snapped.

"I almost told your brother," she snapped back, Andrew just kept quiet, it didn't take long for Ron to just leave. She followed, trying to insult the boys into not going, accusing them of not caring for Gryffindor. Ron told her to go away and she gave up, trying to return to bed, only to find that The Fat Lady was gone. She caught up with the boys at the end of the corridor.

"I'm coming with you," she said.

"You are _not!_ " Ron told her.

She simply stated that she was pretty much using them to save her own skin if Filch caught her, Ron told her that she had some nerve, but Harry told them to shut up since he'd heard something.

"It's Neville," Andrew murmured.

And sure enough it was, he'd been released from the hospital wing, having taken something for his trauma, and couldn't get to bed because he forgot the new password.

"Well the password's 'Pig snout', but it won't do you any good, The Fat Lady's gone," Andrew told him.

"How're you feeling?" Harry asked.

"Fine, thanks for catching me Andrew," he answered, Andrew simply nodded in an 'anytime' way, but they had to get going and Neville panicked at the idea of being by himself again and came with them.

They made their way down the corridors, moonlight pouring through the windows and making the corridors eerily beautiful, it didn't take a Jedi to figure out that Harry was worried about getting caught, but they eventually got to the trophy room without any trouble.

Malfoy, Crabbe and Starr weren't there yet, and Andrew suspected that Goyle would turn up with them. he took the spare time to look at the various trophies that lined the room.

"Hey Harry, I didn't know you're Dad played Seeker too, at least, I'm guessing James Potter is your Dad," Andrew stated in mild surprise, Harry rushed over and looked at the trophy, it commemorated the effort of the Gryffindor Quidditch team of 1985 in winning the cup without a single conceded goal, James Potter played Captain and Seeker for the team.

"They're late, maybe they chickened out," Ron whispered.

"A Sith Lord chicken out?" asked Andrew sarcastically. "Even an apprentice wouldn't do that, they may run from a fight they know they can't win rather than die, but they'd never chicken out before turning up."

Then Andrew sensed it before he heard it.

"Sniff around my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch talking to Mrs Norris, they quickly crept towards the opposite door; Neville's robes only just got out of sight when the caretaker and his damned cat entered the trophy room.

Harry motioned for everyone to follow him and they did so, quietly and calmly. Neville lost his nerve when they heard Filch getting closer and bolted, except that he tripped and fell into a suit of armour, taking Ron with him.

The noise was loud enough to wake the entire castle "RUN!" Harry yelled and the five of them sprinted down the corridor, Andrew carrying Neville over his shoulders so that he wouldn't trip again.

Andrew simply followed Harry, not knowing or __caring__ where they were going, it wasn't until they reached the Charms classroom that any of them stopped running.

"I __told__ you," Hermione wheezed.

"Ok Hermione, no need to rub it in, we were set up, no biggie, we just need to get back to the common room, ASAP," Andrew stated as calmly as possible.

"Let's go," Harry said.

But before they'd even walked a few steps, Peeves came shooting out of a classroom.

 _"_ _(_ _ _This isn't going to go well__ _,)"_ Andrew thought as the poltergeist started squealing in delight.

"Shut up Peeves, please, you'll get us thrown out," Hermione pleaded.

He just cackled "Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away Peeves, please." Neville was the one begging now.

"Should tell Filch, I should," he said in a mock-saint voice, his eyes glinting evilly, "it's for your own good you know."

"Get out of the way," Ron snapped at he swiped at Peeves "( _ _Idiot!__ _)"_ thought Andrew.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

They ducked under Peeves and ran like a mad man with a machete was chasing them on a motorcycle, given that Filch wouldn't be far behind them there wasn't much difference.

They ran to the end of the corridor, up some steps and slammed into a locked door.

"This is it!" Ron whined while forcing all of his weight against the door. "We're done for! This is the end!"

Andrew could hear Filch running towards Peeves' shouts, he was just about to Force push the door, off its hinges if necessary, but Hermione shoved him out of the way.

"Oh move over!" she snarled, she grabbed Harry's wand and whispered, "Alohomora!" as she tapped the lock, the door opened and they scrammed themselves through it.

"Which way did they go Peeves!" they could hear Filch demand "quick, tell me!"

"Say 'please'."

"Don't mess me about Peeves now _where did they go_?" he insisted.

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," Peeves said in a sing-song voice, Andrew started shaking since he'd foreseen what was coming next.

"All right, _please_ ," Filch growled.

"NOTHING! Ha haa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" Peeves flew away cackling and Filch cursed in rage.

Andrew never got the chance to laugh, he sensed an cascading wave of fear, and a feral rage; he turned slowly and stared into the three faces of a huge three-headed dog.

"What?" Harry snapped at Neville as he turned to see what Neville was tugging on his sleeve for.

"Oh, Fulham!" Andrew said trying his best not to swear as the dog started to growl. "Um, Harry, now might be the best time to leave, with haste!"

Andrew turned in time to see Harry, Ron and Hermione fall backwards out of the door with Neville jumping after them. One of the heads went for Andrew, who flipped backwards onto it then bounded forwards, through the open door. He somersaulted and slammed the door shut with the Force.

They ran, almost flying, back to the common room, thankfully Filch was gone.

"Where on earth have you all been?" The Fat Lady asked.

"Never mind that," Ron half-shouted.

"Pig snout, pig snout," they all panted, she swung forward and they practically dived into the common room and collapsed into armchairs.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron asked indignantly after about five minutes total silence.

"A creature that big wouldn't be there without reason, we've just not been told what that reason is," Andrew reasoned.

At that point Hermione's breath and anger returned.

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

Harry was about to make a sarcastic comment but Andrew help up a hand to stop him "No, but I take it that you did?" he asked.

"It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." She said in her usual bossy voice.

She soon stormed off to bed, saying something about them all nearly getting killed or expelled, making it clear that she thought expulsion was the worse of the two.

Ron shook his head after her "She __needs__ to sort out her priorities," he said and the boys went to bed themselves.

"Night guys," Andrew said to their retreating forms.

"You not going to bed?" Neville asked, speaking for the first time since meeting that dog.

"I won't be able to sleep after what we just went through, not without meditating first," Andrew explained as he settled himself in front of the fire and started to focus, causing everything that wasn't screwed down to float around the room, the furniture simply hovered over the spots they normally stayed in.

The next morning Percy walked into the common room to see Andrew in a lotus position, breathing quietly, with one or two objects hovering around his head, they seemed to take them selves to pieces and then pull back together.

"Might I ask what you're doing out of bed?" he asked Andrew, who dropped the objects as his concentration broke.

"I couldn't sleep, and meditating in my room is rather impossible with your brother's snoring," he explained while getting shakily to his feet. "Don't worry, it's not the first time I've done an all-nighter and it certainly won't be the last."

"I see," Percy said curtly and made his way to the portrait hole while Andrew went to put on some clean robes.

When Andrew, Harry and Ron got down to breakfast Andrew couldn't help but glance at the Slytherin table, to say that Malfoy was shocked to see them would have been an understatement.

Harry and Ron however thought of the previous night as an adventure and couldn't wait to have another; they spent a great amount of time discussing what was under the trapdoor while thinking of ways to get back at Malfoy and Jax.

Andrew got his chance at his next training session that weekend, he went one on one with Jax and won, and when Jax tried turning to the Force Andrew picked him up, from about five metres away and tossed him into the lake.

Harry and Ron got their revenge exactly one week after the flying lesson. As normal the owls flew in through the high windows, everyone was curious as to what was inside the long thin package being carried by six owls, whatever it was it was being sent to Harry, another owl followed close behind, dropping a note which Harry read first.

Andrew paid more attention to his own post, he'd received a new power source for his lightsaber from his master, some new trainers from his parents and a lovely card from Mel, all for his birthday, Andrew had to read the card, in detail, later since a note was shoved into his hand, detailing that the parcel was a Nimbus Two Thousand that Harry would start his Quidditch training that evening, Andrew took the hint and left the Great Hall, loaded with his presents, so that they could give the broom a once over.

They couldn't get upstairs, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Starr were completely blocking the stairs, Starr ripped the package from Harry's grasp and Malfoy caught it.

"That's a broomstick," he declared after he'd felt it, Andrew tore it from his hands and back to Harry, Malfoy had a look of jealously on his face, which quickly turned to spite, "you'll be in it this time Potter, first-years aren't allowed them."

Ron couldn't hold it back anymore "It's not just any broomstick, it's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron grinned at Harry and Andrew. "Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."

Malfoy scowled. "What would you know about it Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle," he snapped, "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up, twig by twig."

Andrew thought that was hitting slightly below the belt and was about to throw Malfoy into the ceiling when Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow.

"Not arguing, I hope, boys?" he asked in his squeaky little voice.

"Potter's been sent a broomstick Professor," Starr stated, earning a cold look from Malfoy who wanted to get Harry in trouble.

"Yes, yes, that's right," he squeaked while beaming at Harry, Andrew was starting to think that Force throwing Malfoy wasn't as much fun as this. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances Potter. And what model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," Harry answered while fighting not to laugh at the look of horror and outrage on Malfoy's face. "And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I got It." he finished, just to add insult to injury, okay maybe it was the other way around, but never mind it was still hilarious.

The Gryffindor boys headed upstairs, waiting until they were out of earshot before bursting into laughter.

"Well it's true," Harry laughed "if he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall I wouldn't be in the team …"

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" Hermione snapped from behind them.

"I thought you weren't talking to us?" said Harry, and it was true, she hadn't said a word to them since that run in with the dog.

"Yes, don't stop now," added Ron "it's doing us so much good."

She marched away with her nose in the air, Andrew sensed the hurt coming from her, and that was what drove him to his next act.

Ron was slammed against a wall and lifted, through the Force, by his throat.

"That was highly uncalled for!" Andrew snapped darkly.

"Yeah … well she can't … just leave us alone!" Ron struggled to say thanks to the pressure against his throat.

"And?" asked Andrew.

"Well … I have no excuse really," he finished defeated, at which Andrew released him.

"When you next see her, if she'll let you, I'd appreciate you apologising to her," Andrew told him.

Throughout the day Harry was distracted and Andrew could tell why, his thoughts were drifting to a certain broomstick in their dormitory. Ron was having no luck at even approaching Hermione; every time he tried she'd walk away from him.

In the end he decided to help Ron and motioned him to talk to him during History of Magic.

"Here, sign this," Andrew whispered to him, Ron read the note that Andrew passed him.

 _Dear Hermione_

 _I apologise for what I said this morning, it was uncalled for and cruel, please feel free to talk to myself, Harry, or anyone that you wish to at any time you like._

 _Forgive me, please._

"I noticed that she's avoiding you, maybe she'll allow me to pass her a note from you," Andrew suggested, Ron nodded in agreement and signed the note.

At the end of class Andrew quickly slipped the note into Hermione's pocket and kept walking, in Potions Hermione noticed it and after that class she walked up to Ron.

"I know full well that these words are not yours, but did you mean them?" she asked.

Ron nodded "Yeah, I shouldn't have said what I did, okay so you're bossy and care for the rules too much but it doesn't mean I have to bully you for it."

Andrew smirked at his words; they were rudely said, but not meant to be unkind.

"Thank you for your honesty, and apology accepted," she said politely and walked off.

That evening Harry could've choked to death with the rate he was eating his food, as was Ron, after they'd waited impatiently for Andrew to finish the three of them rushed upstairs and unwrapped Harry's parcel.

The twigs were perfectly even; the handle was a sleek and shiny mahogany and at the top, in gold letters, were the words 'Nimbus Two Thousand'.

"Wow," Andrew whistled as Ron sighed the same word.

As seven o'clock drew near Harry left, Ron wanted to go but he was getting behind on his homework, Andrew was keeping his in check and offered to help Ron while he built a new lightsaber with the power source Jarod had given him.

As Ron finished his essay for McGonagall he noticed what Andrew was doing, he was sitting on a cushion in front of the fire in a lotus position, his hands resting on his knees and an assortment of metal parts and a crystal on the floor before him.

As Ron watched, Hermione sat next to him and started getting her homework out. She too noticed Andrew and pushed her homework aside; she wanted to know what Andrew was doing but was too polite to ask him.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked.

"Building my new lightsaber," Andrew answered calmly as the pieces lifted off the ground slowly.

"Oh, would you mind if I wrote down what you're doing? I've never seen a Jedi building a lightsaber before and I'd like to memorise it," said Hermione, catching Ron off guard and he jumped, causing Andrew to smirk.

"Sure, but try not to write too loudly, this takes a lot of concentration," Andrew answered and continued.

The parts rose further into the air and floated in front of Andrew's face, all at an agonisingly slow pace. The parts started to move closer to each other, creating two halves of the weapon the casing was going to be a silvery colour while the blade was going to be blue, that's what the hovering crystal was for.

Now the top half was finished, as was the bottom, all that was needed was for the two to be put together with the crystal sitting in there comfortably. The process was nearly finished, when Harry walked into the common room and broke Andrew's concentration and the weapon shattered, the pieces littering the floor before Andrew.

He huffed slightly through his nose "( _ _Hmm, maybe I should do this later__ _,)"_ he thought "Hi Harry," he said aloud, trying to sound cheerful, "need some help with your homework?"

The next two weeks went by slowly and uneventfully, the only thing of real interest being Harry's struggle to balance homework with Quidditch training, Andrew chose to forgo building his lightsaber to help Harry keep up, knowing that sometime soon, he'd have plenty of time.

He got his first inkling on October the first, it was a long and slow Tuesday and every one of the first-year students was exhausted after dinner, except for Andrew, and as his friends finished their homework and dragged themselves up to bed, the Jedi told them he was going to finish reading a book he'd borrowed from the library, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'.

The next morning he ran into Percy again, he had just finished the last page and was still fully alert.

"Ron kept you awake again?" he asked.

"No, just got caught up in this," Andrew answered, showing him the book.

"Oh yes, _fascinating_ read!" Percy exclaimed, passing the book back. "You spent all night reading it?"

"I'm like that most of the time, once I get into a good book, I can't put it down," Andrew chuckled, excusing himself to head up to his dorm and change. It was another fairly slow day, not helped by the History of Magic class, that evening, Andrew and Ron accompanied Harry to Quidditch practise, where Andrew learned the finer points of the game and its rules, given that on the train they had been interrupted.

That night Andrew couldn't sleep again, by now he knew exactly why, but he couldn't do anything about it so he built his lightsaber again, this time without any interruptions, it was identical to his normal one, except that this one was built to hold his wand and channel magic too.

The idea was to give him an advantage in battle, and he planned to test it that weekend against Mel.

"So, what to do now?" Andrew thought aloud.

"You could go to bed young master," said a squeaky voice, puzzled Andrew looked around.

"Professor Flitwick, how did you get in here?" he asked.

"I is not Professor Flitwick young master, but I is needing to do my work done," said the voice, Andrew spun around as the voice had gotten behind him, either the Force was strong with this creature or it was immune to his senses.

"What work would that be my friend?" he asked.

"Cleaning up this common room young sir," it squeaked, Andrew could tell now that the voice was male.

"Well there's no need to hide, come on out," Andrew said kindly and from a dark corner came a little creature with batty ears, large brown eyes and it was wearing a tea-towel as a loincloth which had the Hogwarts crest on it, "and what's your name?"

"Fane sir, Fane the house elf," he squeaked.

"I'm Andrew Payne, the Jedi Padawan, it's a pleasure to meet you Fane," Andrew said while holding out his hand, the elf seemed reluctant to take it, he bowed instead.

"If you'll forgive me sir, I must be getting my work done," and with that he bustled around the room.

"Here, allow me to help," Andrew said, the elf instantly became offended as Andrew raised his hand.

"Forgive my saying so sir, but we house elves are meant to work without help," Fane said with a hint of a snap on his lips.

"Forgive my rudeness, but that sounds very much like slavery to me," Andrew stated.

"In my opinion it is only slavery when the elf in question is poorly treated; otherwise it is the greatest privilege to serve," Fane answered matter-of-factly.

"Forgive me, it was not my intention to be rude," Andrew apologised while taking a seat out of Fane's way.

"Sir, it is nearly midnight, why is you not in bed?" Fane asked honestly, sounding as though he were afraid he was being rude.

"I have a … medical condition, I was diagnosed with it when I was five, then again at eight, than __again__ last year, once a year now it seems, and for the rest of my life." He explained, but Fane looked puzzled, Andrew chuckled at the thoughts he could feel from him "The medical term is Nodormiunus, put simply for the next few weeks I'm going to find it impossible to sleep, it's a very rare condition that thankfully isn't hereditary."

"I am never hearing of it young master," squeaked Fane, he quickly finished his cleaning while saying, "I am sorry for your suffering."

Andrew laughed mirthlessly. "The only thing that makes me suffer is the boredom, most people tend to go to bed while I'm left wide awake with nothing to do and no one to do it with," he explained while standing up and heading for the portrait hole.

"Where is you going Andrew Payne?" Fane asked.

"Well, Dumbledore needs to know what's happening to me, and what will happen after my insomnia wears off," at Fane's puzzled look he added, "once I become tired, which can be anytime after four weeks, I'm literally going to pass out and become comatose for about a week."

A look of understanding something plastered the elf's face and Andrew left, realised something important and, after giving the password to The Fat Lady, he re-entered the common room.

"Fane?" he asked as the elf made a pile of rubbish disappear.

"Yes, Andrew Payne, sir?"

"I just realised that I have no idea where the headmaster's office is, could you show me the way?" Andrew asked, Fane squeaked repeatedly and Andrew realised that he was laughing.

"Yes sir of course I can," he squeaked through his hands, trying to stop himself from laughing any more.

Andrew waited patiently for Fane to finish his work and followed him out of the common room and through the castle.

They met up with Filch, who tried to threaten Andrew with a detention that would have him hanging from his toes in the dungeon.

Andrew wasn't too pleased with the threat so he said "You haven't seen me here," with a casual wave of his hand.

"I 'aven't seen you 'ere," he repeated.

"You want to carry on with your rounds."

"I want to carry on with me rounds," and with that he walked off, Fane just shrugged and carried on. The next person they walked into was Snape.

"This young sir urgently needs to see the headmaster, sir," he squeaked and Snape simply told them to get moving.

"And if I ever catch you in the corridors at night again Payne it will be a detention!"

Andrew was sorely tempted to mind trick him too, but he could tell he wasn't as weak-minded as Filch.

The last teacher they encountered was McGonagall, who simply asked Fane to continue with his work in other parts of the castle and escorted Andrew herself.

Once they arrived at a gargoyle and McGonagall gave it the password, the gargoyle jumped aside and Andrew stepped onto a moving staircase, once at the top he knocked on a huge door and heard Dumbledore say "Enter".

"Evening professor," Andrew said as he entered, he looked at a nearby clock and corrected himself "or should I say morning."

Dumbledore smiled at the little joke, he was taking off a dressing gown and about to climb into his bead, his pyjamas were purple with gold stars.

"What can I help you with Andrew?" he asked while tossing the gown aside and sitting behind his desk.

Andrew filled him in on his medical condition and the eventual effects.

"So in a way I'm asking for permission to skip lessons for about a week in four weeks time and for any advice that you can give me for avoiding total boredom at night," he concluded.

"As for the permission for skipping classes, you have it, and I shall inform your teachers, under the condition that you stay in the hospital wing for observation. As for what to do at night, I suppose you can also have my permission to explore a little, but not tonight, I need some time to inform my staff about you roaming the corridors. Just remember to inform me about it next year." Dumbledore said.

"I have no idea when that might be sir, my condition is unpredictable, I never know when it's going to start, or how long it's going to last. I only know that when my insomnia wares off, I'll be comatose for a week, and that I'll have to put up with this once a year, _every_ year for the rest of my life."

"Not to worry Andrew, now that I am aware of it, we shall do whatever is necessary to help you manage." Dumbledore said cheerfully. "If you'd like something to do tonight I have a rather vast collection of muggle novels if you'd like to browse through them." Andrew beamed and shot towards the bookshelf.

When Dumbledore awoke in the morning he found his entire bookshelf had been rearranged, into alphabetical order of what Andrew had read, it seemed that he read rather fast, he also discovered that his desk had been converted into a work bench, on which Andrew was building a small spherical device.

"What are you doing?" he asked, Andrew just shrugged and pressed a button on the device; it floated off the desk and started making its way around the room. Andrew then pulled out a small screen and turned it on, it turned out that the device was a camera of some sort that was transmitting to that screen, it returned to Andrew and he turned it off, pocketing it.

"Something I get up to when I'm overly bored, I invent things," he explained before he left for breakfast. "By the way, I'd already read most of the books you've got."

Dumbledore dressed quickly and followed him, Andrew handed the screen to the headmaster once he'd caught up, "In case I need to contact you," he said then he ran off and tested the range, he was able to contact Dumbledore from anywhere within Hogwarts, he also explained that the screen could call the 'probe' as he called it.

It was breakfast time and the only eventful thing was Harry and Ron rushing into the Great Hall to inform Professor McGonagall that Andrew seemed to be missing, but she calmly pointed out that they had both run right past him on their way to the teacher's table.

"Okay, what's going on, that's two days in a row that you've gotten up before us and normally we have to pull you out of bed by your feet," Ron asked, slightly angry.

"Uhhh … my sleeping habits have improved?" Andrew said, trying to lie his way out of this situation.

The looks on his friends' faces clearly said that they weren't convinced.

"Okay, I've got a rare medical condition, for the next month, at least, I'm not going to be able to sleep for even a second, you can give me sleeping pills, concussion, nothing short of killing me is going to get me a wink of sleep," he explained.

"That's weird," said Ron, confirming Andrew's fears.

"How long have you had this condition?" Harry asked.

"All my life," Andrew answered, "I first suffered with it when I was five, then when I was eight and again when I was ten, according to medical records it becomes more frequent as the 'patient' gets older, but never more frequent than a year."

"So what do you do with your spare time?" Ron asked he was trying to get his head around a person not sleeping.

"Read, watch TV …"

"Not happening here," Harry chimed in.

"Invent random … stuff, anything to avoid boredom, since nobody stays up the whole night." Andrew finished.

They spent breakfast talking about ways that Andrew could have some company, since for the most part his condition caused him nightly solitude.

"Hang about," Ron suddenly said, "you said that your not sleeping for the next month right?" Andrew nodded "So what happens when you do get some sleep?"

"Ah, I had a word with Dumbledore about that, he wants me in the Hospital wing for observation because I'll practically be comatose for about a week," Andrew told them casually.

"Cool, a whole week off lessons," Fred said, having been eavesdropping.

"And then about two weeks catching up," Andrew countered.

Harry guaranteed that between him and Ron, Andrew wouldn't fall behind, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it, so there was no point in worrying about it now.

For the rest of October, Andrew spent his evenings helping his friends with their homework, leaving his to tackle overnight while he was alone, it gave him something to do. Once his homework was finished, he would get up, leave the common room and wonder around the castle by the light of his blade.

Things remained quiet really, until Halloween. The morning started off with Harry and Ron meeting Andrew at breakfast, he'd neglected to go back to Gryffindor Tower after his night-long stroll.

"Still awake?" Ron asked, pointlessly. Andrew responded by letting his head sag forward while he pretended to snore.

"Very funny," Harry added, sarcastically. "It's gotta be getting close though, right?"

Andrew sighed. "There's no way to really tell, and even if I wanted to, I couldn't describe how suddenly it happens, I only ever remember feeling slightly drowsy all of a sudden and then waking up in a hospital bed. One time I actually had a caste on my arm because I fell out a window!"

"Ouch!" Ron hissed. "We better make sure you stay between us for a while."

Andrew smiled gratefully and tucked into his pumpkin pie as the others took seats on either side of him and placed some food on their own plates.

"Best eat up quickly boys," Percy called from a little down the table. "Your first class will be starting soon."

The three of them wolfed down their meals and ran off to Charms.

"For the past two months we have been learning theory and practising wrist movements, so today we are going to have our first attempt at levitating some objects," Flitwick squeaked, reminding Andrew vividly of Fane, he placed everyone into pairs, Andrew was with Neville, Harry with Seamus and Ron with Hermione. The task was to take the feather each pair had been provided with and make it float into the air and back down.

He reminded them of the swish and flick and set them off; Andrew got it on his first attempt and started showing Neville how to do it.

Seamus tried prodding his and Harry's feather with his wand and set it on fire, Harry had to put it out with his hat, Ron wasn't getting anywhere and got sulky when Hermione got it on her first try.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron said when they were in the corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

At those words Hermione barged past them, tears halfway down her cheeks.

"I think she heard you." Harry pointed out.

"So?" said Ron, looking a tad uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

Andrew sighed and placed his head in one of his hands "You know what? I give up on you."

And without another word he stormed off after her, he would've told her to ignore Ron, but she ran into a girls toilet and Andrew was too much the gentleman to go in after her, so he carried on to class. Ron tried catching his eye but Andrew was too angry with both of his friends to speak to them at the moment. He didn't want to say something he'd regret later.

It wasn't until they were on their way to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast that Andrew spoke to them, they overheard Parvati Patil telling Lavender Brown that Hermione was crying in the same girls toilet that Andrew saw her run into and wanted to be left alone, Harry looked guilty about it, even though he'd technically done nothing wrong, and Andrew could sense and see Ron's guilt, even if he'd never say anything.

They enjoyed the food, Andrew especially liked the live bats that were flying everywhere, and they talked about apologising to Hermione the very second that they next saw her, but the good mood was spoiled by Professor Quirrell bursting into the Hall screaming.

"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON! TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" he stopped his sprint about midway down the Hall. "Thought you ought to know." He barely managed to finish his sentence when he fainted.

Dead silence for a split second before the majority of the students began to scream and start running for the door.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore bellowed as he stood. "Everyone will, please, not panic!" he ordered. "Now, students will follow their Prefects to their dormitories, teachers, will follow me, to the dungeons." And with that Percy Weasley jumped up and ordered first-years to follow him.

They were halfway down the corridor that led to the Grand Staircase when Andrew stopped dead, causing Ron and then Harry to walk into him, they were wondering between them how a troll could get in.

"It doesn't matter," Andrew said.

"What?" asked Ron.

"Hermione!" Andrew exclaimed as he turned to them, other Gryffindors just forcing their way around them. "She doesn't know about the troll!" without another word he ran off, Ron and Harry following close behind.

They had to hide along the way since they heard footsteps following them; it turned out to be Snape who was heading to the third floor.

After Snape vanished they heard loud grunting and shuffling footsteps.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that the troll left the dungeon," Andrew said in a light hearted whisper.

"How are you so calm?!" Ron hissed.

"It's my training," Andrew answered with a shrug. Then he grinned as he said, "this is where the fun begins."

The troll was walking towards them, the smell was overloading their senses, almost making them gag and give away their position. It came to a large doorway and decided to go in, they noticed the key was in the lock and decided to shut it in.

After that was done they started to walk away, Andrew dusting his hands off and saying "All in a days work, now let's get to Hermione," then they heard her scream.

"Oh crap," Andrew said as they turned back to the door.

"That was the girls' toilets!" Harry and Ron gasped.

"HERMIONE!" they all yelled together and bolted for the door, Andrew drawing his lightsaber and Forcing the door off its hinges.

Hermione was cowering in the corner as the troll advanced on her, breaking sinks as it went, but the sound of the door smashing its way across the room drew its attention. Ron started throwing random bits of broken … everything at the troll while Harry tried to sneak around it to get to Hermione, once he did he tried to get her to move, but she was too terrified.

The troll was being driven berserk by the shouting, echoes and random objects and it darted for Ron, causing Andrew to, literally, leap into action. As it took a swing at Ron and Andrew, the Jedi pushed his friend back into the wall, leaping onto the club and springing onto the troll's chest. He charged up a powerful Force push and shoved it back hard.

Harry took the chance and dragged Hermione over to Ron as Andrew landed gracefully on the floor, the troll righted itself and took another swing at the Padawan, but he leapt to his right, somersaulting onto one of the stalls, then off it and over the troll's head as its club demolished the wooden structure with another swing.

Gripping the troll's forehead, Andrew ignited his lightsaber and held the blade near its neck threatening it, but it just grabbed him, bashed him on the head with its club and threw him into a wall.

Andrew lay still, reeling in the pain he was now feeling. His head was bleeding and every inch of his body ached, but he forced himself to his feet, an angry glint in his eye, the troll was now advancing on Harry, Ron and Hermione, but Andrew had other plans.

"OY!" he bellowed, the troll turned to face the noise, confused that Andrew was actually standing. "You three might wanna take cover!" he growled as electricity started to crackle around his arms, hands and fingertips. They noticed and took refuge behind the one stall wall that wasn't smashed.

Allowing every ounce of his rage to flow down his arms to his fingertips, Andrew raised his hands towards the troll and let out a roar of rage as lightning flew from his fingers, barely making a dent, so Andrew picked it up and threw it into the wall where the cubicles were, then into the mirrors on the other side of the room. He dropped it there, he then picked up the club it had dropped and threw that at the troll, followed by the only intact sink, which Andrew used to mercilessly batter the troll's head with. After the sink had turned purple from the trolls blood, Andrew drew his lightsaber, fully intent on killing it, before Harry and Ron grabbed an arm each to hold him back.

That was when McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell charged in trying to find out what was causing al the noise.

"Cool it Andrew!" Harry yelled.

"Yeah, I think you got it mate," Ron added.

Professor Quirrell examined the troll and Hermione tentatively stepped up to him.

"Is it … dead?" she asked.

"N-n-no, j-j-j-just unc-c-c-conscious," he stuttered, pointing his wand and healing the cuts made from Andrew's bludgeoning.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" McGonagall exploded. "You're lucky you weren't killed!"

"Hardly," Andrew breathed icily, he was only just audible to Harry and Ron who were still restraining him; he was giving death glares to the troll as a trickle of blood fell from a gash over his left eye.

"Why weren't you in your dormitory?" McGonagall demanded.

"Please Professor McGonagall … they were looking for me." Hermione said shamefully.

"Miss Granger!" McGonagall was shocked.

"I went looking for the troll because I … I thought I could deal with it on my own … you know, because I've read all about them." She explained.

At this Andrew dropped his lightsaber, deactivating it, Ron dropped his wand and Harry dropped his jaw, they were in total shock at Hermione telling a downright lie to a teacher. But she pressed on.

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry carried me to safety while Ron distracted it and Andrew smashed it into the walls and knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived." She finished.

Harry and Ron tried to look as if the whole story was true; Andrew didn't need much effort since his part in the whole affair was accurate, minus one little detail.

"I only have one question," Snape started, he pointed at Andrew's eye and asked, "what did that Payne?"

Harry and Ron let Andrew go so that he could explain, he stood straight as if nothing happened and said, "Well you see that little crack in the wall?" he pointed to where the troll had thrown him, it was hardly a small crack, more like a gaping hole, but Snape nodded. "Well Tubby here thought it'd be interesting to see if I could pass through solid objects and threw me face first, but I'm fine honest," he would have been convincing if he hadn't swayed slightly as he said it, his blood dripping off his jaw to the floor.

The sway seemed to escape the teacher's notice, though not his bleeding. "Well, I'll have Madam Pomfrey take a look at you Payne," McGonagall said, Andrew nodded, there was the chance of concussion, her gaze shot to Hermione "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Harry and Ron were speechless. Hermione was the last person on earth to break the rules and she was now pretending that she had in order to get them out of trouble, it was about as unbelievable as Snape handing out sweets. What got Andrew was the fact that they were buying her story.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this, I'm very disappointed in you, you'd better get off to Gryffindor Tower, the students are finishing the feast in their houses." McGonagall told them, and Hermione left. "As for you three, well I still say that you were very lucky, regardless of your abilities as a Jedi, Mr Payne, you still came out fairly beaten, but then again not many first-years could have taken on a fully grown mountain troll and lived to tell the tale. Therefore five points; will be awarded to each of you. You may go, Madam Pomfrey will be sent to your common room to tend to that eye Mr Payne."

They didn't speak until they got two floors up, Andrew had started to stumble around and the others helped him.

"We should have gotten more than fifteen points," Ron grumbled.

"Technically it was only ten, she did take five points from Hermione, but don't be greedy, she could've __taken__ points rather than given them, ouch!" Harry pointed out, Andrew groaned and hissed, as pain shot through his ribs.

Ron tilted his head to the side in a conceding nod "Good of her, to get us out of trouble I mean," Ron admitted, "mind you, we __did__ save her."

"We wouldn't have needed to save her if we hadn't locked that thing in with her," Harry reminded him, Andrew laughed manically then.

"Did you see the way I threw that thing around like a rag doll?" he giggled Ron was starting to think that maybe Andrew had some brain damage.

"Yeah mate, how'd you do that electricity thing?" Harry asked.

"Oh Force Lightning? Jedi aren't normally supposed to use it, mainly cause it's difficult to use it and not slip into the dark side, but I had to let my anger out somehow, and besides, I didn't kill that thing did I?" Andrew answered and giggled again, "Pig snout." He sang to The Fat Lady once they got there.

They hoisted Andrew into the common room and Hermione cleared a chair for them to put him in. "What happened to him?" Lee Jordan asked.

"Oh nothing much, just a mountain troll trying to turn me into an aeroplane," Andrew answered, beginning to see the room spin.

Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room, muttering something about mad children, she gave Andrew a potion for his head, healed his cut eyebrow and fixed his broken ribs, within minutes he was bouncing around, eating food and telling jokes as if nothing was ever wrong.

"Keep an eye on him." She told Percy, who nodded, nobody understood why Andrew was so active; except Harry and Ron, who filled Hermione in.

"Oh, Nodormiunus! My Great Uncle Matthew had it," she said, seeing Andrew in a slightly different light, "how long has it been since he slept?"

"Not since the first of the month, I think," Ron answered, it seemed strange to him that he was getting along so well with her, but from afar Andrew understood entirely, the four of them would soon be seen as the closest of friends. Because there are some things that you can't share without ending up at least liking each other, most of the time it was near-death experiences, but knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll, definitely came near the top of the list.


	5. Quidditch, Mirrors and Philosophers

**Chapter 5 – Quidditch, Mirrors and Philosophers**

It was now about a week into November and Hermione had offered to help Andrew stay on track once his 'illness', as she put it, wore off. The scenery had drastically changed too, the mountains were turning icy grey and the lake was starting to look like chilled steel. It was funny seeing Hagrid in the grounds defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch pitch, he looked very much like an Eskimo in his moleskin overcoat, rabbit-fur gloves and beaver skin boots, it was his hair and beard that completed the look.

The Quidditch season had begun and Andrew was looking forward to seeing Harry flying again, Oliver Wood had decided that Harry would be kept under wraps since he was a secret weapon.

Andrew had been without sleep for about five weeks now, he was completely up to date with his homework and, between him and Hermione, Ron and Harry were too.

During one of Andrew's 'night-time strolls' he came across a room by accident, he was constantly thinking about how bored he was while pacing past some portrait of an idiot trying to teach trolls to dance for the ballet. Inside this room were fictional books, Jedi training droids, an inventor's laboratory and meditation mats.

"Cool," Andrew said as he entered, he spent the entire night battling, reading, meditating and inventing random stuff. In the morning, a shower room materialised in the corner with fresh clothing when he'd cleaned off the sweat and grease from his body.

After he left, the room seemed to have some kind of alarm clock built into it; Andrew hunted Fane down and asked him about the room he'd discovered.

"Ah that is the Room of Requirement sir, to enter it you must simply pass the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy three times while thinking of what you need, the room then appears with exactly what you is needing," the elf explained.

"Well last night I was thinking about how bored I was and the room gave me a place to practise my sword skills, to meditate and a place to just read and play around with my inventions," Andrew told him as they walked down towards the Great Hall.

"The room gave you everything you needed to keep you busy through the night," Fane answered.

 _"_ _(_ _ _Except the one thing I really needed__ _,)"_ Andrew thought sourly. "Thanks Fane you've been a great help, I'll be able to find that room with no problems tonight." Andrew said with a smile, the elf bowed low to the ground, saying that it was an honour to help and disappeared while Andrew ran to breakfast.

That morning Harry arrived with a book under his arm, entitled ' _Quidditch through the Ages'_ it basically covered the rules, positions and history of the sport, Andrew was somewhat shocked to find that there were exactly seven hundred ways that someone could commit a foul while playing the game, more so that all of them were committed in a single game back in the 1473 World Cup.

Hermione had become somewhat more relaxed about breaking rules since Halloween, and Ron got along with her a lot more for it, the four of them were beginning to get suspicious of Snape though, on an occasion when Hermione had conjured a blue flame that could be carried in a jam jar for them to keep warm outside with, Snape limped up to them and took Harry's book from him along with five points from Gryffindor.

After they'd all done their homework that evening Harry went to retrieve his book from Snape, he returned to the common room within five minutes, looking slightly shaken.

"What's up?" Andrew asked.

"Snape just blew my head off for seeing him bandaging up his leg," Harry explained in a slightly shaky voice.

"What was he saying before he saw you?" Andrew asked "Wow I'm inquisitive today."

"Just something about watching all three heads at once," he answered, at those words Andrew dropped the book he'd borrowed from the Room of Requirement, he'd neglected to mention the room to his friends.

"You think he was trying to get past that dog on Halloween?" Ron asked.

"Seems like it, I've even bet my broomstick that __he__ let that troll in as a diversion," Harry whispered.

"No, he wouldn't" Hermione said wide-eyed, "I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something that Dumbledore was keeping safe."

"Honestly Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something?" Ron snapped. "I'm with Harry on this; I wouldn't put anything past Snape."

"I think the more important question is what the heck is that dog guarding?" Andrew pointed out, trying to stop an argument before it started; it worked, to the point of stunning all four of them into silence as they thought about his question.

"I know one thing for certain," Harry said, breaking the silence. "I'm not too eager to try crawling under that monster to take a look."

"Not while it's awake," Ron added.

None of them figured out any answers and in the end, Harry, Ron and Hermione went to bed, leaving Andrew alone to ponder the situation by himself.

He went straight to the Room or Requirement to see if it could tell him anything, but alas it was either unwilling, or unable to help him. So he just went for another all-nighter, but this time he used his new lightsaber when combating the training droid, with it he was able to use magic through his lightsaber. The droid charged, Andrew deflected the strike and shot sparks into the power core, causing the droid to explode.

"Note to self, ask Professors about a spell to disarm an opponents," Andrew said to himself aloud as he checked himself over for any shrapnel.

"Ooooh, naughty, naughty, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness!" Peeves sang.

"Well you're a living example that lack of sleep can drive a person batty," Andrew joked.

"True," Peeves answered, followed by him blowing a raspberry.

"How'd you get in here?"

"A wonderful invention … it's called a door!" Peeves answered mockingly

Andrew laughed. "Sarcasm from the poltergeist? Miracles will never cease." Andrew then turned back to the next droid, opting to stick to his normal blade, he knew that Peeves was simply curious about Andrew and merely wanted to watch.

Surprisingly the poltergeist applauded when Andrew defeated the droid, the Padawan was out of breath after winning that fight, the droid fought like Master McKnight of the Jedi order and was incredibly challenging.

"Impressive," Peeves cackled.

"Thanks, now, is there a reason that you're here besides watching me work up a sweat?" Andrew asked as he dabbed at his face with a towel.

"Not really, I got bored of pestering Filch, besides, you're the only __living__ being to actually be a challenge, I wanted to see if I could work around you and carry on causing havoc." He answered honestly.

"Peeves, I am an agent of chaos, you want to cause havoc, then be my guest. Just don't try anything on me, I have a reputation to keep." At those words, Peeves rolled around in mid-air and cackled like a sugar-crazed maniac.

He left once Andrew started meditating, grumbling something about wanting to make a certain cat fly.

Although he was annoying, Andrew missed the company "( _ _Now I'm just getting desperate__ _,_ _)"_ he thought angrily, "( _ _Peeves?__ _ _Company?__ _ _GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!__ _)"_ at that point a vase that he was causing to float around the room, shot into a far wall and shattered, effectively breaking his concentration. Taking a deep breath, the young Jedi centred himself and started to meditate again.

Everything soon crashed to the floor when Andrew's alarm went off.

"Time to go meet Harry," Andrew said, he could sense Harry's consciousness from where he sat; Harry was feeling nervous, and slightly sick.

As Andrew walked into the common room, Hermione was coming down from the girls' dormitories, "Good morning Andrew, Harry," she said brightly.

 _"_ _(_ _ _Clearly she's a morning person, oh joy!__ _)"_ Andrew thought as he rolled his eyes.

"Hermione, you imply that I slept," said Andrew in a bored voice, causing a smile to grace Harry's face as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Is it starting to wear off?" Harry asked, sounding hopeful.

"I wish!" Andrew snapped. "It's just the boredom, I had a chat with Peeves this morning and after he left I missed his company … GOD I'M GETTING DESPERATE!" he exclaimed as he fell onto a sofa.

"How on earth did you speak with Peeves without something getting thrown at you?" Harry asked in shock.

"I dunno, maybe he's scared of me, I mean everything he's ever thrown at me has always ended up smacking him instead," Andrew answered, sounding as confused as he was making Harry. Then he sighed. "Boronus, Boretis, Boremus." Harry and Hermione looked at each other and shrugged. "I came, I saw, I bored!"

"Well let's not dwell on the subject, let's get something to eat," Hermione giggled while Harry laughed, just as Ron came down.

Harry tried to say he wasn't hungry, but they wouldn't listen to him.

Down in the Great Hall, Seamus tried telling Harry that he'd need his strength, mentioning that Seekers are normally the first targets for the other team.

"Not helping dude," Andrew growled.

"Good luck today Potter," said Snape, causing every Gryffindor head to turn, "then again, now that you've proven yourself against a troll a little game of Quidditch should be easy work for you, even if it is against Slytherin." And without another word he limped away.

By eleven o'clock the entire school was down at the pitch, Andrew had joined Ron and Hermione at the top of the stands, along with Neville, Seamus and Dean, between them they'd created a banner which said ' _Potter for President'_ with a Gryffindor lion under it and the letters flashing in different colours.

Andrew had convinced Jax Starr to trade his lightsaber for one of the ones that Andrew had 'borrowed' from one of the droids in the Room or Requirement, which was green, he reasoned that Andrew needed red for Gryffindor and Jax needed a green blade for Slytherin, he agreed on the condition that they trade back before leaving the stadium.

"Hold on, Payne," Jax called, causing Andrew to turn back to the Sith. "Where did you get a green lightsaber from?"

"I happened to have a spare," Andrew lied with a shrug, walking away from an unconvinced Jax Starr.

The players walked out onto the pitch and everyone roared, to make themselves more noticeable Andrew and Starr ignited their blades and held them above their heads, swaying them from side to side like flags.

Madam Hooch was refereeing. "Now I want a nice fair game, from all of you," she called out, surprisingly loud enough to be heard around the pitch, Harry noticed the banner with a red bladed lightsaber waving in front of it and Andrew could feel his spirits lift.

Hooch ordered the captains to shake hands and for all players to mount their brooms, she gave a blast of her whistle and the players kicked off, she released the Bludgers and the Snitch, then she threw the Quaffle into the air and the game was on.

Lee Jordan was commentating "And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor, what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive too …"

"JORDAN!" McGonagall barked, causing Andrew to laugh; then he decided on a little support for Gryffindor and, after a few whispered words to everyone around him started to chant.

"GRYFFINDOR, GRYFFINDOR, TRY! TRY! TRY!" over and over again, soon other Gryffindor supporters got the idea and joined in, determined not to be beaten on the ground the Slytherin fans countered with.

"WIN! WIN! SLYTHERIN!" while Starr waved his borrowed lightsaber around like a flag.

But both sides of the battle were drowned out by Lee who was determined to still be heard over the crowd, besides, once Hagrid joined the Gryffindors in their chanting, the Slytherins gave it up and the shouting ended.

The score was ten to nothing for Gryffindor at the moment, and Andrew wasn't certain if Lee was trying to be a commentator or a comedian, his description of "Gryffindor Beater Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which," made Andrew laugh so hard he almost cracked a rib.

At one point one of the Slytherin chasers, Adrian Pucey, was on a run for the Gryffindor goals when a glint of gold shot over his shoulder and he dropped the Quaffle. Both Seekers went for it, but before Harry could catch it, the Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint blocked him on purpose, the Snitch vanished and Gryffindor were given a penalty.

The next words out of Lee Jordan's mouth clearly showed that he wanted Gryffindor to win.

"So, after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating …" he'd started.

"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul …"

" _Jordan I'm warning you …_ "

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no problem, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

So the score was now twenty to nothing and for some reason Harry's broom started to try and buck him off. It took people a while to notice Harry's trouble, but eventually Hagrid pointed out that only Dark Magic could tamper with a broom, at those words Hermione grabbed Hagrid's binoculars a started looking through the crowd.

"What are you doing?" asked Ron.

"I knew it," Hermione gasped and passed the binoculars, "look at Snape."

Ron did so, followed by Andrew, he was in the stands opposite them and was muttering under his breath.

"What should we do?" Ron asked.

"Leave it to me." Hermione said and ran off.

Thanks to the huge distraction Slytherin had gone from twenty – nothing to twenty – sixty. The Weasley twins were circling beneath Harry's broom hoping to catch him if he fell off, he was dangling by one hand and clinging for dear life. Suddenly Harry's broom stopped trying to knock him off and he clambered back on.

For some reason though Harry dived and clapped a hand to his mouth, he fell off his broom, thankfully while low to the ground, and surprisingly coughed up the Snitch, causing Gryffindor to win one hundred and seventy points to sixty.

Andrew waited for the stands to empty out slightly before heading to where Starr had stood to watch the match.

"Never watched Quidditch before, it was a good game, congratulations," he said before handing Andrew back the green-bladed weapon as Andrew returned the Sith blade to its owner.

"Thanks, better luck next time," Andrew called as he sprinted off to find Harry.

He found them in Hagrid's hut, he was let in by Hermione just as Hagrid dropped his teapot and said "How d'you know about Fluffy?"

"Fluffy?" Andrew asked, thinking he'd missed something.

"That three headed monster's called Fluffy?" Ron asked incredulously, now Andrew was up to speed, he sat next to Harry, giving him a pat on the shoulder and muttering well done.

"Yeah, he mine," Hagrid said in answer to Ron's question, "bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year, I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the …"

"Yes?" asked Harry eagerly.

"Shouldn't have said that," Hagrid muttered "No more questions, don't ask anymore questions, that's top secret that is." He finished aloud.

They continued to argue, Harry convinced that Snape was trying to steal … whatever Fluffy was guarding, Hermione convinced that he was trying to kill Harry and Hagrid trying to convince them that they were wrong.

"Now listen to me, all four of yeh, yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. What that dog's guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel!" Hagrid told them.

"Who's Nicolas Flamel?" Andrew asked innocently.

Hagrid's face fell; he started bustling around, making a fresh pot of tea, muttering "I shouldn't have said that, I should __not__ have said that, I shouldn't have said that."

In the end he bustled them out of his hut since they all had to go to dinner.

Now Christmas was coming, students had the option to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, or go home, and Harry made it quite clear that he didn't want to go back to Privet Drive. Ron said that he was going home for the holidays and so was Hermione, Andrew wrote to his Master asking if he could keep Harry company at Hogwarts but since the Jedi celebrated the forming of the Order on Christmas day he had to be at the temple.

"I'm sorry Harry," Andrew said as he showed him the letter, he felt rotten, Harry was the first friend Andrew made in the wizarding world and now it felt like he was abandoning him.

"Well he won't be alone," Ron said after reading his own letter that morning, "turns out that my parents are going to Romania to visit my brother Charley."

"That fella who's studying dragons?" Andrew asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah that's the one," Ron answered.

"Well that makes me feel …" and started but yawned widely, he not slept in almost six weeks "better," suddenly he grew huge bags under his eyes and passed out into his scrambled eggs.

Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were there in an instant.

"What happened?" McGonagall demanded.

"I don't know, he just yawned and that was it," Ron answered. "He tried to tell us it'd be fast," he added while Hermione was giving dirty looks to anyone laughing at Andrew's current condition.

Without another word Pomfrey conjured a stretcher and levitated Andrew to the Hospital Wing.

"Well when he said it would be like that," Harry said, snapping his fingers to illustrate what he meant "I wasn't expecting that."

Over the next week, Harry, Ron and Hermione spent their time making duo notes, researching Nicholas Flamel, and visiting Andrew in the hospital in case he woke up.

They were doing alright on the notes, Andrew would still be up to date when he came out of his coma, by now most of the other students had noticed him being missing and Dumbledore had to explain his illness and the fact that he was in a coma, many of the students were concerned, including a few Slytherins, the rest of the Slytherins either didn't care or just found it funny.

On finding Flamel, Harry, Ron and Hermione were getting nowhere, but they were becoming more concerned about Andrew, he seemed to be getting paler. One day after their lessons were over they decided to skip their research and just go to see him, only to find Jarod and Mel already sitting by his bedside.

"Good afternoon Master Jedi," Hermione greeted Jarod.

"Ah, it's good to see you again young ones, I hear you've been endeavouring to keep Andrew from falling behind on his school work," Jarod said with a smile, Mel smiled too, though hers looked somewhat forced.

"How long has he been out?" she asked.

"About five days now," Madam Pomfrey said as she came out to check her patient's condition.

"Does he normally look so pale?" Harry asked.

"Sometimes yes, when he was eight he took two months to fall asleep, so from the fourth week onwards, he started eating more food than normal and that sustained him, but last year, like now I suppose, it just hit him unexpectedly," Jarod explained.

"Where's your master?" Ron asked Mel.

"She elected to stay behind, we heard that Andrew's only allowed five visitors at a time and that you three come by every day," Jarod said with a laugh, "we chose not to cause trouble or arguments so Master Bailo chose to remain behind in order to catch up on some paperwork."

Andrew turned in his sleep, making everyone snap their heads in his direction, but he didn't wake up so they went back to talking.

Nothing major happened for the next few days, Mel practically slept at Andrew's bedside, and Jarod continued her training whenever he could drag her away from his side.

But the day finally came when Andrew actually work up, Harry and Mel were there, Jarod was 'talking' with Professor Sinistra, which had become the kid's codeword for 'on a date', and Ron and Hermione were trying to find Nicholas Flamel.

Mel noticed a few strands of Andrew's hair had grown longer during the last few weeks, she brushed his small fringe away from his face and he mumbled "That feels nice." as he cracked an eyelid open to look at Mel, who smiled, he smiled too and croaked "Got something to drink?"

"Madam Pomfrey!" Harry called, she rushed to them.

"Yes?" she asked kindly.

"He's awake," Harry said while pointing at Andrew.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, all business.

Andrew chose not to speak and mimed that he could use a drink; she took the hint and brought him a glass of water, which he nearly choked himself on.

"Hey, be careful, you don't want to kill yourself just after coming back from the dead," Mel joked, patting his back.

After his third glass Andrew spoke again "Right, ask me that question again," he said.

"How are you feeling?" Pomfrey asked.

"Hungry." Andrew answered simply, being direct and letting out a dry chuckle as he reached for a fourth glass; the matron bustled out of the ward and came back with a tray loaded with food.

"Now don't eat too fast, and try not to eat too much, you'll make yourself sick," she said.

As Andrew ate Jarod, Ron and Hermione walked in.

"Morning sleeping beauty," Jarod joked with his Padawan.

"Sleeping I'll agree with, but ever since Rozwell recorded me sleeping I won't agree with the beauty part, I snore and pull funny faces," Andrew countered, causing Ron to laugh at the mental image.

"So, what'd I miss?" Andrew asked, obviously not referring to class work.

"Well me and Malfoy nearly had a punch up today, we've found nothing on Flamel yet and the holidays start tomorrow," Ron explained.

Andrew's eyes went wide "Why did you and Malfoy nearly fight, don't get me wrong, the guy's a git, but still," Andrew asked.

"Crabbe tried insulting Ron's family and Malfoy was egging him on," Hermione answered, Andrew said something under his breath, but nobody said anything about that.

"I take it that family is a sore spot for you then Ron?" Jarod asked; Ron nodded.

Andrew finished his miniature feast and moved to get out of bed, but Pomfrey stopped him.

"Oh no you don't, you haven't used your legs for a week so you are going to take it easy," she ordered, "I want two people supporting you and you're not leaving this ward until I say so. And that includes going home." She added to Jarod who bowed his head in agreement.

"So," Andrew said as he pulled his legs to dangle over the side of the bed "How'd your date go with Sinistra?" he asked, causing the other children to laugh.

"How did you know?" he asked, not denying it.

"There's a reason you've never beaten me at poker, Master," Andrew answered with a grin.

The next morning Andrew was permitted to leave, he'd managed to walk around the ward by himself before the end of the evening, but Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep him in over night, just to be safe.

 _Two weeks later_

Andrew got off the train, helping Hermione with her trunk, since he was already levitating his own.

He took a deep breath and let out a sigh "Ah, feel that alpine air in your lungs, good to be back ain't it?" he said and Hermione nodded.

They took a carriage up to the school and were met at the Entrance Hall by Harry and Ron. Once their trunks were back in their dorms where they belonged they sat in the common room and talked about the holidays.

The boys had been unsuccessful in finding Flamel, but they did come across this strange mirror. "It had the words 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi' above the glass and in it I saw my family," Harry told them excitedly.

Andrew had written what Harry said down, then under it he wrote it in reverse "You know, if you say the entire thing backwards that mirror says 'I show not your face but your hearts desire'?" he asked.

"That never occurred to me, it makes sense though, because Dumbledore caught me one night and told me that the mirror of Erised shows nothing but the deepest and most desperate desires of our hearts, Ron saw himself becoming the best of his brothers," Harry told them.

"Sounds interesting, can you show me this mirror?" Andrew asked, but Ron shook his head.

"Dumbledore moved it somewhere and practically begged Harry not to go looking for it," he said.

They left it at that and went down for dinner, on the way Harry and Ron asked about Andrew's and Hermione's Christmas', Hermione had just had an average muggle Christmas and Andrew explained the ceremony that the Jedi performed to celebrate the creation of the Jedi Order.

"It's really just like a Nativity play, except instead of the birth of Christ, it shows a battle from World War Two, a Sith tried to wipe out the Allied forces for the Nazis and a Jedi stopped him and helped the Allies push through Belgium." Andrew explained.

"Oh and three Padawans passed their trials too," he added.

"Trials?" Ron asked.

"The Jedi trials," Hermione told him "I don't know what the trials are, but every Jedi has to take them to become a Knight, some Knights choose to take them again to become Masters, but most just earn that rank."

"Well there are four, the Trial of Skill, the Trial of Flesh, the Trial of Courage and the Trial of Spirit," Andrew explained, "to pass the Trial of Skill, Padawans either have to defeat a stronger opponent in combat or show a great amount of skill with the Force. The Trial of Courage entails stuff like going on missions where you've got a rather low chance of survival, and the Trial of Spirit involves going on a … quest, for lack of a better term, of self-discovery." He finished.

"You forgot one," Harry said.

"Did I?" Andrew asked, knowing where this was going.

"Yeah, that Trial of Flesh," Ron pointed out.

"Ah yes, the only trial that scares me."

"Why's that?" Hermione asked as they reached the Great Hall.

"Because a Jedi must overcome a great physical pain, hardship or loss to pass that trial, like losing a limb and living with a robotic replacement, Master Cooper's mentor lost her entire right arm and still serves on the council with this horrific looking, black metal arm, she throws one hell of a punch though," Andrew explained. "It isn't the pain that scares me, it's the possibility that … every Trial is unique you see, I could end up having to live through losing one of my best friends, you know?"

They nodded in understanding; the prospect of losing a loved one looming over your head is rather terrifying.

"Wait," Harry started, remembering something. "Isn't Master Cooper the head of the London Council?"

"Yeah, why?" Andrew asked.

"Well, how is _his_ old Master below him?" Harry asked back.

"She was offered the job a couple of decades ago, but she passed on it," Andrew answered. "She preferred to retire in a way, her job on the council is overseeing the care of Younglings who haven't become Padawans yet. Whenever a Padawan becomes a Knight, she offers a list of candidates to the Master who's suddenly looking for a new student."

They ate dinner, Ron asking about how a Knight becomes a Master which, Andrew told him, was either done by retaking the trials, only on a much more intense scale, or simply requesting a Padawan, thereby becoming that Padawan's Master.

"If it's that simple how come Knights don't just ask straight away and instantly become Masters?" Harry asked.

"Well for one thing a Knight has to wait for at least two years before he or she can make such a request, most Knights who want to be Masters tend to spend those two years teaching Younglings, it's good practise." Andrew answered and got up to leave. "Besides which, while learning as a Padawan, you get a good idea of how good you'll need to be to fill your Master's boots."

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked.

"Just for a walk, besides I need to check something," he answered.

He walked out of the Hall and then sprinted his way to the seventh floor and began pacing.

' _I need information on Nicholas Flamel, I need information on Nicholas Flamel_ ' he thought over and over again, as soon as he heard a small popping noise he charged into the Room of Requirement, there were vast bookshelves, all overloaded, Andrew decided to look through the titles, just to give himself an idea of what they were looking for.

After about a half hour he grabbed a book and sprinted back to his dorm, he plonked himself down on his bed and started to read through it.

Harry was starting to be run ragged, he had homework, Quidditch and hunting for Flamel to deal with all at once and now to top it all off Snape was refereeing the next Quidditch match against Hufflepuff.

Hermione and Ron tried to convince him that he shouldn't play but Harry just told them, there wasn't a reserve player so he had no choice.

"Well I hardly think …" but Andrew cut himself off when he heard laughter, Neville was struggling to get into the common room due to his legs being locked together. Hermione performed the counter curse and he was able to stand up.

"Malfoy?" Andrew asked, since Neville's thoughts betrayed him.

Neville shook his head "He was there, but he didn't do this," he said miserably "I met him outside the library with Crabbe and Goyle. Goyle said they'd been looking for someone to practise that on."

"You should go to McGonagall!" Hermione urged him, "Report them Neville!"

But Neville simply shook his head, "I don't want more trouble," he mumbled.

Andrew sighed and sat on the arm of the nearby sofa, "Then they've already won, if you report them then yes they may bother you more for it, but at least you're standing up for yourself." He told Neville.

"He's right mate, Malfoy's type are used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down and make it easy." Ron said.

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor," Neville choked, he was getting close to tears.

As Harry handed Neville a chocolate frog Andrew pressed on, "We're __not__ saying that Neville, Malfoy and his bodyguards are, and you're letting them, I've got an edge with this sort of thing and let me tell you, you've got more guts than the four of us put together. And one day the time will come when you'll know how to use them." He said and without another word he got up to leave.

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy, and sixty of his cronies," Harry said. "The Sorting Hat put you here in Gryffindor didn't it? And where's Goyle? In stinking Slytherin."

"Here, here." Andrew said while raising a triumphant fist. "Slytherin, the ghetto of cowards!"

Neville's lips twitched into a weak smile at the words of encouragement they were all giving him.

"Thanks everyone … I think I'll go to bed now … do you want the card Harry, you collect them don't you?" he handed over the card and left for bed.

"Dumbledore again," Harry said. "He was the first one I ever …" he gasped and turned over the card "I've got him, I've found Nicholas Flamel."

He read from the back of the card and Andrew could have kicked himself. "Hang about a moment," he said and charged up to his bed, he pulled the book he'd taken from the Room of Requirement out and ran back, the book was titled ' _The History of Alchemy'_.

When he got back he carefully placed the book on the coffee table, opened it to the contents page and looked through it, there was an entire chapter labelled Nicholas Flamel.

"Nicholas Flamel …" Andrew started, mumbled a little as he skimmed the page "… and is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone."

A look of dawning comprehension crossed Hermione's face, but Harry and Ron looked at Andrew blankly.

"For details … see page …" Andrew flicked through the book with the Force and found what he was looking for the chapter was titled ' _Great Alchemic Discoveries'._ "The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers, it transforms any metal into pure gold and also makes the Elixir of Life which will make the drinker immortal. Mr Nicholas Flamel is the owner of the only Stone currently in existence, only last year Mr Flamel celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday, he now enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife who is six hundred and fifty-eight."

"So let me get this straight," said Ron, "there's a guy who's over six hundred and sixty years old, and that dog is guarding the one thing that's makes him immortal."

"Yep, that about sums it up," said Andrew with a shrug.

"No wonder we couldn't find him in ' _Study of_ _ _Recent__ _Developments in Wizardry'_ ," said Hermione, "six hundred odd years isn't exactly what I'd call recent. Flamel must have known that someone was after the stone and asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him.

They spent the next morning discussing what they'd do if they had such a stone, it was while they were writing down ways to treat werewolf bites that Ron said, "I'd buy my own Quidditch team," which brought Harry's thoughts back to the upcoming match.

"I'm playing in that match, I'll not let the Slytherins think that I'm scared of him, besides it'll wipe the smiles off their faces if we win." Harry told them.

"Just so long as we're not wiping you off the pitch," countered Hermione.

"In all sense of sensibility Hermione, Snape's not likely to try anything while the whole school can see him up there." Andrew reasoned.

As the match drew ever nearer, tensions began to rise, everyone was either getting excited about overtaking Slytherin in the House Championship for the first time in seven years or worried that they wouldn't be allowed by such a biased referee.

In regards to Potions lessons Andrew was really beginning to feel sorry for Harry and annoyed at Snape, it seemed as though he was going out of his way to make Harry feel miserable.

Finally the match came, Harry was given his 'good lucks' at the changing room door, Ron and Hermione were wondering if they'd see Harry alive again but Andrew remained confidant that he'd be fine.

Andrew pointed out that Dumbledore had come to the match so the likelihoods of Snape trying anything had pretty much been halved, which might have explained the evil look on his face when the teams came onto the pitch, the captains shook hands and they were off.

"Ouch!" Ron exclaimed as something poked him in the back of the head, Andrew cursed his stupidity when he turned around and saw Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Starr sitting behind them, he'd left his lightsaber behind, but then again, it looked as though Starr had made the same mistake.

"Sorry Weasley I didn't see you there," Malfoy said.

"Hey Payne, you don't happen to have a yellow lightsaber I can borrow do you?" Starr asked with a wicked grin, Andrew shook his head and continued to watch the match.

"Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you Weasley?" said Malfoy, trying to provoke something, Ron ignored him and kept watching Snape who had just awarded Hufflepuff a penalty for George Weasley hitting a Bludger at him.

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" asked Malfoy loudly as Snape gave another penalty, for no reason, to Hufflepuff. "It's people they feel sorry for, there's Potter who has no parents, then there's the Weasleys who've got no money … you should be on the team Longbottom, you've got no brains."

At this Neville turned bright red, turned in his seat and told Malfoy what Harry told him.

"Longbottom if brains were gold you'd be poorer then Weasley and that's saying something." Malfoy laughed.

"I'm warning you Malfoy, one more word …" Ron started.

"Ron!" shouted Hermione suddenly "Harry!"

"What? Where?" said Ron.

Harry had started to dive, people were gasping from the crowd, and Hermione and Andrew were on their feet as Harry streaked towards the ground like a bullet.

"You're in luck Weasley, Potter's obviously spotted some money on the ground!" said Malfoy that was it for Ron, before Andrew could even snap his head around Ron was on top of him.

In regards to the match, Andrew had no idea what happened next, but Neville clambered over the seat to help Ron who caused Crabbe and Goyle to take him on.

Starr looked at the wrestling match then at Andrew, who gave him a look that said 'if you get involved I'm gonna have to join in', Starr just smirked in reply and went for Neville, Andrew was over the seat and delivered a spinning heel kick to Starr's face, he'd been practising martial arts in the Room of Requirement along with everything else.

About ten minutes later Harry was met outside the changing rooms by Andrew, Ron, Hermione and a slightly dazed Neville.

They told Harry about Malfoy taunting them and the brawl that took place during the match, how Neville had lasted a good two minutes against Crabbe and Goyle by himself, Ron had beaten Malfoy to a pulp and Andrew had pretty much cleaned Starr's clock before helping Neville with the thugs.

Harry told them he'd join the celebration in the common room later he just wanted to put his broom away.

He took a good fifteen minutes to get back to the common room where he explained, to Andrew, Ron and Hermione, that he'd just seen Snape threatening Quirrell.

Between the four of them they figured that there was more than Fluffy guarding the Stone and Snape was trying to get Quirrell to tell him how to get past his protection.

"So you mean that the Stone's only safe so long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" Hermione asked in alarm.

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," Ron said dejectedly.


	6. Dragons and the Forbidden Forest

**Chapter 6 – Dragons, and The Forbidden Forest.**

Over the next few weeks Quirrell proved Ron wrong, though he was starting to get paler and thinner. What bothered Andrew was that the worse Quirrell looked, the more he got bad vibes coming from him, he pegged it down to the poor guy's nerves.

Harry had taken to giving Quirrell an encouraging smile whenever they passed in corridors and Ron started yelling at anyone who laughed at his stutter. Hermione however chose to worry about something completely different.

"Morning Hermione," Andrew said one Saturday morning, "what __are__ you doing?" he asked while looking over her shoulder, she was colour-coding her class notes and drawing what looked suspiciously like a timetable of some sort.

"I'm preparing to revise for the end-of-year exams, as should you," she answered.

Ron and Harry had come down to the common room and heard what she said.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Ron complained.

"Ten weeks actually," Hermione snapped.

"She does make a fair point," Andrew chipped in with a shrug. "But I've never needed to revise anything in my life. What's the point when you never forget anything?" And with that, he left the common room to meet his Master in the entrance hall. He couldn't help but smirk when Ron started a small argument by saying "What are you revising for anyway? You already know it all."

He never heard Hermione's retort and spent the day training, he was actually able to take on Mel, Jarod and Dela by himself and hold his own; Jarod was becoming quite impressed with his Padawan's improved skill over the year.

"I take it you spent a lot of your long nights practising somehow," Dela commented knowingly.

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies," Andrew answered, tapping his nose with a grin.

Unfortunately for Harry, Ron and Andrew the teachers shared Hermione's opinion about revision, they piled a mountain of homework on them and the Easter holidays (which Andrew was permitted to stay for) were somewhat dull in comparison to Christmas, especially with Hermione breathing down their necks to remember the twelve uses of dragon's blood and wand movements.

"I'll never remember this!" Ron moaned one afternoon, throwing down his quill in despair.

"Count yourself lucky, I'll never forget it," Andrew answered with a sigh, calmly placed his own quill on the table and leaned back in his chair. "I'm almost with you Ron, I mean, what is the point in being made to revise when I can recite every book we bought back in September, word for word, cover to cover?!" he asked, getting louder and more agitated as he went.

"Please keep your voices down, this _is_ a library," the librarian, Madam Pince, hissed.

"Really? I had no idea," Andrew joked, before apologising to the librarian as he started staring out of the window.

"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?" Ron asked, catching Andrew's attention.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, he was trying to hide something behind his back, which wasn't really hard, all four of them were looking at him now. "An' what're you lot up ter?" he asked, looking suspicious, "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Nope," Andrew said with a grin.

"We found out who he is ages ago," Ron added, " _and_ we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St…"

" _Shhh!_ " hissed Hagrid, he quickly looked around, afraid that someone might be listening in, "don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you as a matter of fact," said Harry, not paying much attention to what Hagrid said, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy …"

Hagrid shushed them again, only this time a little louder. "Listen, come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', but don' go rabbitin' about it here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh …"

"See you later then," Andrew said cheerfully and Hagrid left.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione.

"Do you think it had something to do with the Stone?" Andrew whispered.

Ron then stood up, saying he was going to check which section he was in; he came back and placed a pile of books on the table.

"Dragons?" Andrew asked after scanning the spines.

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me the first time I ever met him," explained Harry.

"I must have missed that part of the conversation," Andrew said, not quite remembering dragons being mentioned.

"It was on the London Tube, before we met up with you," Harry added and Andrew nodded in comprehension.

"But it's against our laws," Ron said, he then explained when it became illegal and why, it made sense, dragons in the backyard would draw attention.

"Are there wild dragons in Britain?" Andrew asked, recalling something odd from his past.

"Of course there are," Ron answered, "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks."

"I can imagine that the Ministry of Magic has quite a job hushing them up," Hermione said with an amused look on her face.

"I'd agree with that, once, when I was nine, I had been hit by something while flying; never saw what it was, but the shuttle had these huge scratch marks on the underside, they were about nine inches long and just barely avoided punching right through to the cockpit." Andrew explained. "The damn thing took a whole month to fix." He added sourly.

"You might have actually seen a dragon, but the Ministry would've sent someone to put a spell on you, to make you forget, you would've still been classed as a muggle then," Ron told him.

"So what on earth is Hagrid up to?" asked Hermione, the answer seemed rather obvious, but they'd find out when they went to see him later.

 _One hour later_

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Andrew were sitting in Hagrid's hut, the curtains were closed and the place was like an oven, for some reason Hagrid had a huge fire going.

"So, yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" Hagrid said.

"Yes," said Harry, "we were wonder if you could tell us guarding the Philosopher's Stone."

"Apart from Fluffy," Andrew added.

Hagrid frowned at them "O' course I can't" he said "for one thing, I don' know meself. For another yeh know too much already, so I wouldn't tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason, it was almost stolen outta Gringotts, I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh come one Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you __do__ know, you know everything that goes on around here," said Hermione, causing Hagrid to smile, "we only wondered who had __done__ the guarding really, we wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Andrew was impressed, he'd only know a Jedi Master to be so persuasive without using a mind trick; it worked though.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that … let's see … he borrowed Fluffy from me … then some o' the teachers did enchantments … Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell, Dumbledore did somethin' himself o' course." He ticked them off on his fingers. "Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

" _Snape_?" Harry blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Yeah, yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped __protect__ the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

That got Andrew thinking though, if Snape was guarding the Stone, finding out who else was doing so was easy, after that it was just the simple matter of knowing __how__ they were guarding it. It seemed that Snape only had Quirrell and Fluffy to get past.

It was slightly comforting to know that only Hagrid and Dumbledore knew how to get past Fluffy.

"Hagrid, can we open a window?" Andrew asked "I'm melting here."

"Can't Andrew, sorry," he answered, glancing at the fire.

"Hagrid, what's _that_?" Harry asked, he'd looked into the fire to see what Hagrid had glanced at, it was an egg.

"Where did you get it Hagrid?" asked Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look "It must've cost you a fortune."

"I won it," Hagrid answered, "off a stranger I met down the pub. He seemed quite glad to be rid of it as a matter of fact."

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid said while pulling a book from under his pillow, "got this outta the library, _Dragon-Breeding for Pleasure and Profit_ , it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here." He explained a couple of fact, how the egg had to be kept hot and what to feed a newborn dragon; it seemed that he had a Norwegian Ridgeback which were quite rare.

"I wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed one evening, the extra homework, revision and trying to convince Hagrid not to keep the dragon after it hatched were starting to get to him.

"No idea mate," Andrew answered "but if you ever find out, let me know."

"I thought the Jedi were peacekeepers," Ron said, slightly perplexed by Andrew's words.

"Yeah, but with so many people trying to argue and stuff, we never get peaceful lives, at least not in the sense that __you're__ thinking," he explained.

The next morning Hedwig delivered a note to Harry saying that the egg was hatching, Ron wanted to go and see, Hermione argued against it and Harry told them both to shut up, but not before Malfoy stopped dead to listen in.

Andrew pointed his, inactive, lightsaber at Malfoy menacingly, his expression clearly saying "Keep moving!"

Hermione eventually agreed to go during break, since Andrew and Harry had joined Ron in saying that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. They ran to Hagrid's hut as soon as the bell rang, he greeted them, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out," he said while ushering them inside. The egg was lying on the table, shaking slightly; there were deep cracks in the shell.

They pulled chairs up to the table, watching with bated breath, when suddenly Andrew took cover under the table, just in time for the egg to practically explode, sending bits of shell everywhere, thankfully no one was hurt, the dragon was attempting to get to its feet, Hagrid helped it, and now it stood looking around, standing on its two legs and using a pair of claws on each wing for balance.

"Isn't he beau'iful?" Hagrid murmured, he reached a hand out to stroke the dragon's head, it purred and yawned, the way someone would when they just woke up, it had very pointed fangs already. "Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!"

Andrew raised an eyebrow at that, but had to stifle a laugh when the dragon hiccoughed and sent the tiniest of fireballs into Hagrid's beard, singeing it.

"He'll have to be trained up o' course," said Hagrid as he patted his beard to put out the embers.

"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow exactly?"

Hagrid never answered, the colour had drained from his face. Andrew sensed panic, from Hagrid and from outside, he bolted to the door, opened it and saw Malfoy running for the castle.

"Should I get him back here Harry?" Andrew asked, ready to grab Malfoy with the Force.

"No point, he's seen the dragon already," Ron answered.

' _Damn, this can only bode ill,_ ' Andrew thought.

They spent the next week in Hagrid's darkened hut trying to convince him to let the dragon go, and feeling nervous about Malfoy, but Hagrid just kept telling them that he couldn't, that he would die. By now the dragon had grown three times in length, it wouldn't be long until Malfoy had no need to report to Dumbledore.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," Hagrid said before coming close to tears, "I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

Andrew snapped his fingers and whispered something in Harry's ear, he turned to Ron.

"Charlie," he said.

"Now __you're__ losing it," Ron exclaimed "I'm Ron, remember?"

"No, your brother Charlie, he studies dragons, we could send Norbert to him; he can take care of Norbert, then release him to the wild!" Andrew explained.

"Brilliant, how about it Hagrid?" Ron asked.

Hagrid agreed and they sent Snowfire to deliver the letter, since he flew slightly faster than Hedwig.

It took a week for the answer to come; Ron had been bitten by Norbert on the night that the answer arrived; in short Charlie said that he could take the dragon and that it needed to be at the top of the tallest tower at midnight that Saturday.

Ron considered going to the hospital wing about his hand, more so when it had swollen by the next day, but the fear of her knowing what had gotten him held him back. But by the afternoon he'd decided that he had no choice, his hand was turning green.

Malfoy took this opportunity to pick on Ron and threaten to tell Madam Pomfrey what really bit him, what was worse was that Malfoy had 'borrowed' one of Ron's books, and, by some fluke, it had the letter from Charlie in it.

"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry was telling Andrew and Hermione after Pomfrey had chased them out of the hospital, "we haven't got time to send Charlie another owl and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert."

"The advantage that we have is the …" Andrew looked around, no one was in earshot, but he lowered his voice anyway, "invisibility cloak."

"So who's going?" Hermione asked.

"Well, it's my invisibility cloak, so I'm going," Harry stated immediately.

"I suppose I should go since I'm physically stronger," Andrew suggested.

"No, I'll go, you're not very good at thinking fast, no offence," Hermione answered apologetically.

"None taken," Andrew said with a simply shrug.

They told Hagrid about it soon after, Fang was sitting outside with a bandaged tail, whimpering slightly, Hagrid himself was leaning out of the window to talk to them; it took a lot of effort on Andrew's part not to laugh when Norbert bit Hagrid's leg and got away with it when Hagrid said he was "jus' playin'".

Ron was still in the hospital, so Andrew was left alone in the common room when Harry and Hermione went to get rid of Norbert, it wasn't until about half-past one that Andrew decided that something was wrong, he got up from the armchair in front of the fire and climbed out of the portrait hole to find them, only to have McGonagall marching them off to bed.

"Mr Payne, I hope you can give a good explanation as to why you're out of bed so late?" she asked dangerously.

 _"_ _(_ _ _Think fast!__ _)"_ Andrew told himself. "I woke up, saw Harry wasn't in bed and got worried," he lied "( _ _that's the best you could do?__ _)"_

McGonagall saw right through the lie. "You knew that Potter and Miss Granger were out of bed." It wasn't a question, and Andrew didn't see any point in trying to dissuade her from the statement.

"Yes Professor," he answered, staring shamefully at the floor, "but I was genuinely worried about them," he offered with a hopeful smile.

McGonagall's eyes narrowed, "Since you were caught here and not in any restricted areas of the castle," she shot a slight glare at Harry, Hermione and Neville, "I shall not deduct any points, however, like your classmates you shall receive a detention."

 _"_ _(_ _ _Could be worse__.)"

"Now off to bed, all of you!" she snapped, causing the four of them to run for it.

Once inside Andrew turned on Harry, "One word, spill!" he ordered.

"We lost fifty points … each," Harry explained, looking as though someone had handed him a death sentence.

"Well it could be worse, at least she didn't order the firing squad," Andrew offered to the three of them.

"Want to bet!" Hermione asked hotly, "Just wait until the rest of the house wakes up and finds that Gryffindor lost a hundred and fifty points overnight!"

"Ah," Andrew said, that part never occurred to him, "then I have a cunning plan, if you guys have to face the firing squad, it's a good thing that lightsabers belt bullets on contact," he gave them a two-fingered salute and a cocky grin, but only earned half-hearted smiles from the boys and a slap on the arm from Hermione.

"This isn't funny!" she snapped and then sighed, "I'm sorry, I'm just so frustrated about all of this, all of my hard work in classes, brushed away like it never happened,"

Andrew placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, and Neville's too. "Don't worry about it guys, nobody's perfect, and you're not Gods, just ignore what people have to say to you, they'll get over it … eventually … you haven't killed anyone, so just get some sleep, tomorrow's gonna be one hell of a long day," he told them, they all nodded and went to bed.

Neville cried into his pillow and eventually fell asleep; Harry was too upset about the loss of points and, so far as Andrew knew, never slept at all, the last thing that Andrew thought as he fell asleep was what the detention might be.

The next day was hellish; the only good thing was that Ron was up and about. The firing squad turned out to be bigger than Andrew expected, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students had turned on Harry, Hermione and Neville too, since they were so looking forward to seeing Slytherin lose the cup. Ron stood by Harry, like the loyal friend that he was, but nonetheless Andrew was sorely tempted to try his hand at force choke, especially on the Slytherins who called out congratulations and thanks to Harry.

Thankfully there was one good distraction for Harry and definitely Hermione, revision, they'd spend many a late night with Andrew and Ron memorising potion ingredients, charms and spells (which Andrew practised casting through his modified lightsaber), the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions and various other things.

Since revising anything theoretical was a pointless venture for him, Andrew volunteered to quiz the others, by thinking up random questions from what he'd read in text books. Even going so far to mix up subjects to try and catch them out. He'd take one line of a question from his Potions notes and another line from History of Magic, usually leaving Ron confused as he tried to figure out the answer that didn't exist, while Hermione would point out that it was a trick question.

About a week before the exams started Harry had left the library; saying that he wanted a break from revision for the evening. He came charging back in while Hermione and Andrew were testing Ron on Astronomy and told them that he suspected Snape had finally gotten to Quirrell.

They talked for a while about weather or not Snape had found out how to get past Fluffy, but when Ron asked what they were going to do, with obvious hope in his eyes, Hermione beat Harry to the punch.

"We go to Dumbledore of course. That's what we should have done ages ago." She said.

"She makes a fair point, we're likely to get expelled if we try to do something ourselves." Andrew added.

"Plus we can't prove anything," Harry sighed, slumping down into a chair.

"Maybe we could poke around a little.." Ron started, only for Harry to cut him off.

"No, we've done enough poking around." He said flatly, and then he pulled a map of Jupiter towards him and worked on memorising the names of its moons.

The next morning Andrew, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Malfoy each received a note saying that their detentions were at eleven o'clock that night and to meet Filch in the entrance hall, Andrew's suggested that he bring his lightsaber.

That night Andrew, Harry and Hermione said their goodbyes to Ron, suggesting that he not wait up for them, and made their way to the entrance hall with Neville. Filch was waiting for them, he lit a lamp and ordered the group to follow him, he started lecturing them and Andrew wondered if that was to be their punishment, listening to Filch all night.

They seemed to be heading in the general direction of Hagrid's hut, it was made definite by Hagrid when he yelled "Is that you Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."

Harry seemed to be delighted by the idea of a detention with Hagrid, but Filch made it sound like hell by mentioning the words "into the Forest you're going …" Andrew didn't catch much else since Neville moaned in fear and Malfoy stopped dead.

"The Forest?" he demanded in a mixture of outrage and blind terror, "We can't go in there," yep, terror, "students aren't allowed!" he sounded almost like Hermione "… and there are … werewolves." He finished with a whimper.

Neville was clutching at Harry's sleeve and choking on his fear.

"Oh there's more then werewolves in those trees lad, you can be sure of that," Filch said with an evil grin, "but you should've thought of that before you got yourself in trouble."

Just then Hagrid arrived, Fang on his heels, he told Filch off for playing the lecturer and Filch left, saying he'd be back at dawn for whatever was left of them.

"Ignore him Nev," Andrew said calmly to Neville, "He's bluffing, and I've got my lightsaber with me."

Whilst Andrew was calming Neville down, Malfoy was trying to get out of going into the Forest, but was left with the option of doing so or getting expelled, to which Malfoy silently gave in.

"Right then," Hagrid said, getting everyone's attention, "now listen carefully, what we're gonna do tonight is dangerous an' I don' want no one takin' risks." He told them to follow him and led them to the very edge of the Forest, he pointed out a pool of something silvery; he stated that it was unicorn blood and that a unicorn had been hurt badly.

"Let me guess, our job is to find the poor thing and possibly ease its passing?" Andrew asked and Hagrid nodded gravely.

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Malfoy asked, fear dripping from every syllable.

"There's nothin' that lives in the Forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," Hagrid stated, then ordered that they stick to the path, that they'd be splitting into two groups to follow a different path.

"I want Fang," Malfoy said quickly, Andrew had to fight not to laugh at his poor choice.

"Fair enough, but I warn yeh, he's a bloody coward," Hagrid answered and Fang whimpered, the groups were Hagrid, Harry and Hermione going left and Malfoy, Neville and Fang going right, leaving Andrew with a choice.

"I'll go with Neville, he's scared to the point of fainting and maybe I can keep him from bolting at the slightest noise," Andrew said and Neville smiled in thanks, "that plus the fact, if my group finds the unicorn still breathing … I can handle it." he shuddered at the thought.

"Makes sense, now if anyone finds the unicorn, they're the send up green sparks, if yeh get inter trouble, send up red an' we'll come find yeh, so be careful and let's go." Hagrid said and they started along the path.

When they got to the fork in the path Andrew stopped, drew his lightsaber and slid his wand into the handle, it made a satisfying click as it was secured.

"Well, see ya," Andrew said and started at a pace that Malfoy and Neville could keep up with.

After about a minute, Malfoy stopped, Fang let out a huff as his lead went taught, causing Andrew and Neville to stop. "Can I confide something in you two?" he asked.

"Sure, what's on your mind?" Andrew asked, keeping his eyes focused on the trees.

"I … I'm scared," Malfoy admitted. "There, I said it, happy Longbottom!" he snapped.

"No, I'm not!" Neville answered. "I'm scared too."

"Would it help either of you if I said I was both proud and impressed?" Andrew asked.

"Why?" Malfoy snapped, not seeming to like showing weakness.

"Being scared, it sucks, but admitting it? That takes guts." Andrew explained, turning to the both of them. "Just take a deep breath, hold it, and let it out slowly, I'll take point." They gave him a confused look. "Muggle armed forces term, it means I'll take the lead, Neville, you stay behind me and point out anything shiny, it could be blood. And Draco, can I call you Draco?" Malfoy nodded.

"You and Fang bring up the rear, his nose is stronger than ours, so if anything's coming from behind, he'll know before we do, and if he makes the slightest noise, we pull in tight and keep our backs together and our wands ready!" The others nodded in agreement.

"I just wish I knew what that spell was." the Jedi muttered.

"What spell?" Neville asked.

"Well, while I had permission to wander the corridors at night, I noticed the teachers and prefects walking around with their wand tips lit up." Andrew answered.

"The Lumos spell," Malfoy said without thinking.

"Is that the incantation?" Andrew asked, Draco nodded, Andrew deactivated his lightsaber and held his left arm straight out, his right hand hovering over the tip of the lightsaber hilt as he concentrated. "Lumos!" he called, flinging his right hand out swiftly as the blade ignited in a bright yellow glow.

Neville and Draco copied him and they continued down the path. "Can I tell you something honestly Drake?" Andrew called back softly, not wanting to attract too much attention.

"What?" Malfoy said, keeping his eyes peeled.

"I'm not sure what it is that makes you such a prat most of the time, but I think this side of you is the better person." Andrew pointed out calmly.

"Hmph, Starr keeps saying the same thing, when Crabbe, Goyle and McCarthy aren't around." Draco answered.

"McCarthy, isn't he that guy who got sorted right after you?" Neville asked, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"Yep, he was the one who got Goyle to use the leg-locker curse on you a few months ago, and got me to tease Weasley at the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match." Draco sighed.

"I'd steer clear of him, sound like he's a bad influence." the Jedi said with a slight frown.

"That's kind of hard, he's my second cousin, once or twice removed, I can never keep track of that stuff." Malfoy's voice got a little faint as he whirled around, thinking he'd heard something.

"Anything Nev?" Andrew asked Neville gave a negative grunt, too afraid to speak, "there's nothing to worry about Neville, if anything comes along then I'll just play the part of mad chef and serve it up for supper."

Neville let slip a small chuckle, his mood a little lighter, Malfoy just snorted, trying not to encourage Andrew's attempts at humour.

They kept moving, Andrew faintly heard Hagrid yell "Get behind that tree!" and he stopped dead, reaching out through the Force to see if they were alright.

They were fine, but Andrew didn't come back to himself as slowly as he should, Neville accidentally walked into him and broke his concentration, his mind snapped back to his body too fast and left him slightly dizzy.

"What's wrong," Malfoy demanded, sounding scared for the first time since their little talk.

"Nothing, just checking on the others, they've found nothing yet either," Andrew explained and kept moving.

"Andrew look!" Neville said suddenly, pointing at their first pool of blood.

"Hagrid was right, it __has__ been staggering around, hey Fang can you pick up a scent from it?" the huge dog pulled Draco a little to take a sniff at the pool and snorted in disgust, but then started to follow the scent "Good boy, and the game is afoot!"

Both of the other boys gave him quizzical looks, he shrugged. "I'm guessing Sherlock Holmes isn't all that big in the wizarding world," he said, a little stupidly, Neville nodded. "I'll have to bring some of my novels from home next year to lend out."

After half an hour Malfoy accidentally stepped on a rather large twig, the resounding SNAP scared Neville so much that he screamed and shot red sparks up into the sky. Andrew spun around, switching from Lumos spell to his real lightsaber, thinking they were under attack, only to see Draco staring at Neville like a deer caught in the headlights.

Once everyone had calmed down and caught their breath back, Neville was pressing his back against a tree and pointing his wand wildly, Draco dropped to his knees, giggling a little. The giggles broke into laughs as he gasped to get his breath back.

"What the hell just happened!?" Andrew demanded, pulling Malfoy to his feet.

"I'm sorry, I think I stepped on something," Draco sighed, getting his breathing under control. "Sorry Longbottom, I didn't mean to."

"You okay, Nev?" Andrew asked, looking over his shoulder. Neville let out a low whimper as he slid down the tree to sit on the ground. "What the hell was so funny about that Draco?!"

Malfoy stood up and shrugged. "Nerves maybe? I don't know! I'm tired and this place is starting to get to me!"

"I know what you mean, I can feel someth.." Andrew started.

"What's goin' on here!" Hagrid demanded when he arrived.

"Total accident, Hagrid, Malfoy stepped on something, it snapped and Neville panicked." Andrew explained, patting his companions on a shoulder each.

"Neville, come with me, you two wait here," Neville got up and trotted along at Hagrid's side, ten minutes later Hagrid came back, with Harry.

Andrew levitated Draco's wand from the ground and Malfoy gratefully plucked it out of the air, they explained to Harry how to cast Lumos and continued along the path.

After a few minutes they started to have trouble seeing the path, even with Andrew's light but the spots of blood were becoming more frequent and that was starting to worry them all.

"I don't like where this is going." Andrew commented.

"You think we're going to find it?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of." Andrew answered.

"How come?" Draco asked, speaking for the first time since Harry arrived.

Andrew slowed to a stop. "It's difficult to explain." he started, taking a moment to organise his thoughts. "Well, we Jedi, have a strong connection to the Force, which binds all life together." He started.

"Is this going to be a lecture?" Draco asked, crossing his arms.

"Not really," Andrew answered, bristling a little. "Because of this connection, I can sense all the life around us, the trees, the birds, hell, even the termites living in the bark!" Harry nodded as Andrew paused to make sure they understood, Draco nodded as well and he carried on. "Well, if you were to walk over to a tree and start squashing those termites … I'd feel them die."

The two of them realised what he was saying and shuddered. "You're hoping we find the unicorn dead, so that you don't feel like you're dying when you kill it." Draco said sadly, Andrew nodded and they pressed on.

They started coming to a clearing and Harry halted them, there was something gleaming on the ground in the centre of the clearing, they inched closer to it. It was the unicorn and, thankfully, it was dead.

It looked so pathetically sad but, even in death, gloriously beautiful. Andrew was about to suggest the sparks when he sensed a disturbance in the Force. A hooded figure came out of the bushes and started crawling towards the poor beast.

When it got there it bent its head and began drinking the unicorn's blood, Malfoy let out a scream and ran for it, Fang hot on his heels. Harry stood frozen in fear and then clutched at his head as he fell to his knees, it was just as the creature looked at him.

The creature started towards Harry and Andrew jumped in between them, but before the creature could get within striking distance a centaur leapt at it and it scurried away.

"Are you two alright?" he asked, Andrew nodded in both an affirmative and thanks as he helped Harry to his feet.

"What was that thing?" Harry asked once he was standing, the centaur didn't answer.

"You are the Potter boy; you had better get back to Hagrid. The Forest is not safe at this time, especially for you." He said while lowing to his knees for Harry to ride.

"Who are you?" Andrew asked, choosing to be cautious.

"I am Firenze, can you ride Harry Potter? It would be quicker that way," Harry nodded and clambered aboard "I should not leave you behind young one." Firenze added to Andrew.

"That's alright, I can run." Firenze looked unconvinced so Andrew demonstrated by Force running around the wide clearing in two seconds flat.

Before they could leave two more centaurs arrived, one of them was shouting at Firenze and the other was trying to keep things civil, Andrew just decided that it wasn't any of his business and waited until Firenze chose to end the proceedings by galloping off, Andrew hot on his heels, or hooves as the case was.

Harry seemed to know the other two centaurs and asked why one of them, Bane, was so upset and again Harry asked what that creature was. Firenze unexpectedly slowed to a walk and Andrew shot past him, tripping up on a tree root when he tried to slow down.

Andrew got back to them as Firenze explained that a unicorn's blood would keep someone alive even if they were on their deathbed, but at the cost of being cursed.

"But who would choose such a life? Death's better than that isn't it?" Harry asked.

"It is, unless you only needed it until you drank something else, something that wouldn't allow you to die at all," Firenze said, "do you know what is being kept up at the school at this very moment?"

Harry looked at Andrew.

"The Philosopher's Stone!" they said together.

"Can you think of anyone who has waited for many years to return to power, who has clung to life by any means possible?" Firenze asked.

It took Harry a few moments to process that and he came to a conclusion.

"You mean that was …" he started.

 _"_ _(_ _ _Voldemort!__ _)"_ Andrew thought as Hermione called to them, Harry told Hagrid where the unicorn was and Firenze let Harry down and left. It turned out that Fang had led Malfoy to Hagrid who came looking for Harry and Andrew, but Hermione refused to be left behind that time.

Hagrid came back, led the way to Malfoy, Fang and Neville and then led them all out of the Forest. The four Gryffindors found Ron asleep in the common room, Neville went straight up to bed and Harry shook Ron awake; then started pacing as he and Andrew explained between then what happened.

After they announced that Snape only wanted the stone for Voldemort, Harry explained the argument between the centaurs.

"Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have … Bane was furious … he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen … they must show that Voldemort's coming back … Bane thinks that Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me … I suppose that's written in the stars as well." He ranted.

" _Will you stop saying the name!_ " Ron hissed.

Harry pretty much ignored him and carried on until Andrew said "Mate, you're ranting, calm down okay?" at which point Harry sat down in an armchair.

They didn't end up going to bed until the early hours of the morning, they were exhausted, Ron got into the dormitory and fell asleep, Andrew managed to levitate him to his bed and crawl into his own bed, Harry became surprised to find his Invisibility Cloak folded neatly under his bed sheet and that was all that Andrew knew, before falling asleep.


	7. Trapdoors and Dark Lords

**Chapter 7 – Trapdoors and Dark Lords**

The exams were hellish, but then again that's what exams were invented for, by the time it was all over Andrew was wishing his illness was kicking in so that he wouldn't feel so drowsy during exams, but never mind, History of Magic was over and they were free for a week.

"You know, there comes a point for people like me where exams make us feel like parrots," Andrew sighed as they walked towards the lake.

"How d'you mean?" Ron asked.

Andrew answered by letting out a squawk. "1442!" then he whistled.

Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan were heading down to the lake too, they heard the whole thing and answered with, "Polly want a cracker?" causing a round of laughs.

"So, what are you guys planning for the holidays?" Andrew asked as they sat under a tree by the lake.

"Not sure mate," Ron answered "Probably spend most of it playing Quidditch with my brothers." He looked to Hermione pointedly.

"I'll most likely go on holiday with my parents again; I can't be sure until I get home." She said with a sigh, it was almost exasperatedly, like the holidays bored her.

"Harry?" Andrew asked.

"Well you've met my uncle, so you can picture that my summer won't be fun," Harry answered with a slightly depressed sigh.

"Maybe I should ask Master Cooper about you visiting the Temple, it'd make getting your supplies for next year easier." Andrew suggested.

That seemed to perk Harry up a bit, so Andrew turned away and watched the twins and Lee tickling a giant squid.

"No more revision," Ron signed, stretching out slightly.

"Yeah," Andrew laughed, "we'll rediscover the meaning of a good-night's sleep. What's up Harry?"

"Yeah, you could look happier mate, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done," Ron told him, and Andrew smirked, "there's no need to worry."

"Yet," Andrew quipped.

"I wish I knew what this __means__!" Harry burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting, it's happened before, but never this often."

"Maybe you should go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill," Harry answered, somewhat snappishly, "I think it's a warning … it means danger's coming …"

Ron tried to calm Harry down, not wanting his post-exams euphoria to be ended so abruptly. At first Harry seemed to be convinced, but Andrew sensed something click in Harry's mind and wasn't shocked when Harry suddenly jumped to his feet.

"Where're you going?" groaned Ron, he'd been happily dosing off.

"I've just thought of something," he answered, looking rather pale, "we've got to go see Hagrid now."

He set off at a rather brisk pace. "Why?" Hermione asked as she hurried to catch up.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd," Harry started without breaking his step, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pockets?"

As Harry continued to explain his thoughts Andrew had already figured out where this was going and picked up his pace.

They found Hagrid shelling peas, Harry asked him about the night he won Norbert, if Hagrid saw the face of the man who had the egg. Hagrid said he hadn't, but that people keeping hoods up in the Hog's Head was normal.

Harry sat down and asked what they'd talked about, Hagrid answered that they'd talked about Hagrid's gamekeeping duties, and the stranger had asked what sort of creatures Hagrid looked after. Hagrid had told the stranger that he'd always wanted a dragon, they played cards for it, but the stranger wanted to be certain that Hagrid could handle it.

"… So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon's gonna be no problem," Hagrid chuckled.

"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asked, a little too quickly.

Hagrid chuckled and told him that the stranger was indeed interested, even in the three-headed dog trade you rarely see them, then, without realising it, he told them that he's easy to handle because if someone played music around him he fell straight to sleep.

The four Gryffindors took off running in horror that Snape knew how to get past Fluffy. They didn't

stop running until they got to the Entrance Hall.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," Harry said once they'd stopped, "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak."

"Where's his office?" Ron asked, bringing forward the only problem that they had.

Andrew was just about to answer that question, when Professor McGonagall demanded to know what they were doing inside, Hermione stated that they needed to see the headmaster, but he'd left ten minutes ago for the Ministry of Magic.

After about a minute of trying to get McGonagall to help, and failing, Harry came to the conclusion that Snape was going for the Stone that night, Snape didn't make himself look very innocent by threatening them with point deductions for standing inside, or by threatening Harry with expulsion if he wandered around at night again.

Once outside Harry split them up, Hermione was going to keep an eye on Snape by pretending to need to speak to Professor Flitwick, while Andrew, Harry and Ron kept watch on the third floor.

The whole plan failed, the boys were threatened by McGonagall with more point deductions when she caught them at the third floor corridor and Hermione had to run away when Snape went to fetch Flitwick for her.

That was it for Harry, he'd decided that he was going down for the Stone, maybe he could get it before Snape did, Hermione and Ron tried to stop him and Andrew just stayed out of it.

What Harry said was true, house points didn't matter, if Voldemort returned Hogwarts would most likely be turned into a school for the Dark Arts, if Harry got expelled then it would only take Voldemort a little longer to find him, getting that Stone and keeping it from Snape was the only option they had.

"You're right Harry," Hermione said in a small voice after he'd finished his tirade.

"I'll use my Invisibility Cloak, it's just lucky I got it back." Harry said, not really hearing Hermione.

"Will it cover all four of us?" Ron asked.

That snapped Harry out of it "All four of us?"

"Think about it Harry, you honestly think any of us would let you go alone?" Andrew asked with a raised eyebrow.

It took a little arm twisting, but eventually they came to a mutual understanding, the Cloak wouldn't fit over all four of them, but Andrew was so fast that no teacher had a hope in Sith hell of catching him.

At about eleven o'clock Harry fetched his Cloak.

"We'd better put it on here, make sure that it covers all of us, Andrew, check for us would you?" Harry said.

"Sure, wouldn't do to have a foot walking about on its own," Andrew chuckled.

"What are you doing?" Neville asked from the corner of the room, having followed the boys down from the dormitory.

They tried worming their way out of his question, but he picked up on it.

"You're going out again," it wasn't a question, Hermione tried to convince him otherwise, to go to bed, but he wouldn't have it, "you can't go out, you'll get caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble." He said defiantly.

"You don't understand," Harry said, "this is important."

"I won't let you do it," Neville said while hurrying to block their way out "I-I-I'll fight you!"

"You don't want to fight us, you want to go to bed," Andrew said while waving his hand slowly in Neville's direction.

"No I don't, and no I won't!" Neville said loudly, and slightly confused.

"Okay, not weak minded obviously," Andrew muttered.

"Neville I'm _really_ , really sorry about this," Hermione said as she raised her wand "Petrificus Totalus!" she said calmly while point her wand at Neville, his arms snapped to his sides, his legs sprang together and he started to fall forward.

"Whoa there," Andrew said while rushing forward and catching him, with Ron's help Neville was laid on one of the sofas.

They gave their apologies, Harry tested the size of the Cloak, perfect fit, and they left, Andrew force running to the third floor. He wasn't surprised to find the door already ajar, what did get him was the fact that a harp was playing by itself.

When he heard the door creak open behind him Andrew's reflexes took over and he nearly beheaded Harry, Ron and Hermione while they were under the Cloak, but stopped himself once he realised who was there.

"We'll need to be quick, that'll stop playing eventually," Andrew said as they stepped out from the Cloak.

Without another word they pulled open the trapdoor and debated who was to go first.

"Ladies first?" Andrew offered, but Hermione glared at him. "Right then, I'll do it, I know how to slow down in the air."

He leapt into the hole, holding his robes in just the right place to form a make-shift parachute while at the same time using his feet, jumping from one wall to another, to slow himself down even further.

He landed with a soft __thump__ and looked up. "It's alright, it's about a twenty to thirty second drop, but there's something soft to land on!" he called and soon enough, Harry landed on his backside next to him, followed closely by Ron and Hermione.

"We must be miles under the school," she said.

"Lucky this plant thing's here really," added Ron.

"Somehow I doubt that," Andrew said calmly as Hermione struggled like hell towards a wall. The three boys were being attacked without noticing, Harry and Ron were trying to force the plant they'd landed on off of their legs with their bare hands while Andrew started slashing at vines and tentacles with his lightsaber, he was soon free.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered Harry and Ron, who were only getting gripped tighter. "I know what this is, it's Devil's Snare!"

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," Ron snarled with a hint of sarcasm.

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" Hermione snapped back.

"Well, hurry up I can't breath!" Harry gasped while trying to stop it from crushing his chest, at that point Andrew jumped back in to try and keep his friends alive, slowly burning the tentacles away from vital areas, like Ron's throat. On top of that he had to keep the damned thing off himself and if he moved too fast he could easily kill his friends.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare … what did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp…" just then a vine whipped up and wrapped itself around Andrew's neck, pulling him roughly down onto his back.

"So light a fire!" he choked as the plant started throttling him.

"Yes, of course … but there's no wood!" she cried, wringing her hands.

"You're a witch aren't you!" Ron bellowed, Andrew having just burned his neck free.

"Oh, right!" she blushed at her slight idiocy, she pulled her wand out and set the plant on fire, it released them and they joined Hermione by the wall.

"Lucky that you pay attention in Herbology Hermione," Harry praised.

"Yeah, and lucky we doesn't lose our heads in a crisis, 'no wood'? Honestly!" Ron complained.

They carried on, there was only one passage way and eventually came to a bright room, with bright objects floating around it, only one other exit, a big heavy door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Ron asked, he must have thought that they were birds of some kind, understandable as there was an obvious sound of wings.

"Only one way to find out," Andrew said, he ignited his lightsaber and took a few steps forward, nothing, so he deactivated his weapon and motioned the others to join him.

The others did so and they went for the door.

"This is too easy!" Ron exclaimed happily.

"That's what gets me, I get the feeling that this door is going to be …" Ron tried to open said door "locked," Andrew finished and crossed his arms.

"These birds can't be here for show," Hermione deduced after trying the Alohomora spell.

"They're keys!" Harry exclaimed after taking a closer look, Ron added two and two together.

"We're looking for an old fashioned one, probably silver like the handle," he said.

"There're hundreds of them," Hermione said, sounding defeated.

"Well there're three brooms over there, who's going for them," Andrew asked in a pep talk sort of way.

"Well, I'm scared of heights," Hermione admitted, slightly shamefaced.

"I'll go then," Andrew said while patting Hermione's shoulder sympathetically.

So the boys each picked a broomstick and kicked off the ground.

After a while of catching keys, Andrew's reflexes would've made him a find seeker, passing them to Hermione and her making sure that no tried key would join the rest Harry noticed something.

"That one!" he yelled while pointing, Andrew followed his gaze and saw it.

"The one with blue wings that looks like it's been caught harshly already?" Andrew asked and Harry nodded. As Harry continued to point, the other keys seemed to wake up, one flew right at Andrew's head, narrowly missing him as he tilted his head to the side, but one of the wings slashed his cheek.

"Watch yourself guys, those wings are sharp!" he called out as Ron shot at the key they needed, missing it and just managing to stop himself from crashing into the ceiling.

"We've got to close in on it, Ron stay above it, Andrew, you go below and stop it from diving, I'll try to catch it," Harry waited until Andrew and Ron were in position "Right, NOW!"

Ron dived, Andrew shot upwards and Harry streaked after it, he chased it to the wall and pinned it under one hand, Andrew actually felt sorry for the poor thing, mainly because there was a nasty sounding crunch as Harry pinned it.

As Harry made his way back to the ground, the other keys simply dropped out of the air, causing Hermione to have to take cover to avoid any of them hitting her on the head.

The four of them cheered as Harry pushed the key into the lock and opened the door easily. Once the door key was released, with two broken wings, all the others went airborne again. As they made their way into the next room, the boys clothes sporting a few slashes, they saw a huge chessboard. Ron figured out quickly that they had to join the black pieces and defeat the white in order to get across the room; Ron made Harry a bishop, Hermione a castle and himself a knight.

"What about me?" Andrew asked.

"I need you to keep out of this one, if anything happens to Hermione and me, Harry's going to need somebody," Ron explained, it made sense, so Andrew nodded and stood to one side.

A white pawn moved first and the game was on, it turned out that this game was going to be just like real wizard's chess when the white queen smashed the other black knight and dragged him off the board. Ron's next move was to have Hermione take a white bishop.

The game continued like that, as one side took a piece, they then lost one, one two occasions Andrew would shout, "Ron watch out, Harry's in danger," or "Hermione'll get taken if you do that!" and Ron quickly changed tactics to keep them safe.

Ron was doing fantastically, until he realised that he'd have to be taken himself, he told Harry what to do and readied himself to move to where the queen could get him.

"Ron, keep hold of the reigns and stand on the saddle, maybe you can jump clear before the queen hits you." Andrew suggested.

Ron did as Andrew said and called his move. "Knight to H3!" his knight scraped two spaces forward and one to the left. "Check!" he called, followed by the queen rotating to her right, scraping all the way over to Ron's knight.

"NOW RON! JUMP!" Andrew cried out, Ron leaped for his life as the queen stabbed her pike through the horse and ripped it to pieces. As Ron landed, his head collided with a wall and knocked him out cold. Hermione almost moved off her square to check him but Andrew used the Force to hold her still.

"Don't forget Hermione, we're still playing." Harry pointed out as Andrew checked Ron over, then he crossed diagonally over three spaces and called checkmate, ending the game.

"He'll have one hell of a headache later, but he's going to be fine." Andrew reported, removing his robe and folding it into a pillow to slip under his friend's head. "We'd better get moving, or his last move will have been pointless."

After Hermione ticked off which teachers they'd passed (Sprout with the Devil's Snare, Flitwick with the keys and McGonagall with the chess) they pressed on. It turned out that Quirrell's defence was a troll, which smelled disgusting, and it was already unconscious, so the three of them just tiptoed their way past it and pressed on.

"Well, that was fairly easy," Andrew whispered, worried about waking the monster up.

Te next room held only a table with seven different bottles.

"Snape's," Harry said as he walked in "What do you suppose we have to do?"

Hermione had already walked in, but Andrew dithered "I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this," finally he walked in and a purple fire sprang into life in the doorway, while black flames filled the other doorway.

Hermione noticed a roll of paper next to the bottles and read what it said, and then she sighed and smiled.

"Brilliant, this isn't magic, it's logic, a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic; they'd be stuck in here forever." She explained.

"So will we, won't we?" Harry asked.

"Of course not, everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire and one will get us back through the purple." She explained to Harry while slowly going through the riddle on the paper.

"But how do we know which to drink?" Andrew asked.

"Give me a minute." She answered.

It took her a few minutes, but Hermione finally pointed at the smallest bottle "That one will get us through the black fire, towards the Stone."

"There's only enough for one of us," Harry observed while he looked at how much was in the bottle.

The three of them looked at each other.

"Which one will get you through the purple flames?" Harry asked and Hermione pointed at the rounded bottle on the end at the right.

"You drink that," Harry told her and Andrew, she was about to protest when he stopped her, "no listen, get back and get Ron, grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy, go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him really."

"And if Voldemort's with him?" Andrew asked.

"Well I was lucky once, maybe I'll get lucky again," Harry said while tapping his scar.

"Those are short odds aren't they? But there's one problem you haven't considered," Andrew said as Hermione threw her arms around Harry and whispered words of encouragement into his ear.

"What?" Hermione asked, fearing worse than Harry facing Snape alone.

Andrew picked up the round bottle and held it up to the light to confirm his fears, "There's only enough in here for one person, one of us is going to be trapped in here, and I volunteer. This might set off my claustrophobia a little though, but Dumbledore can get me out when he gets here."

"How come you're not freaking out right now?" Hermione asked.

"I'm usually alright so long as I tell myself I can get out," Andrew let out an involuntary shudder as he looked from purple flames to black and back.

Harry nodded, Hermione took the bottle off of Andrew and drank it, she shuddered; it was so cold and ran through the fire.

Harry picked up his bottle and walked towards the onward exit.

"Harry," Andrew called, he turned, "good luck."

Harry nodded and downed the potion then walked through the flames. Andrew walked as close as he dared to see if he could hear what was happening.

"You!" Harry gasped.

Andrew couldn't see through the flames, so he had no idea what caught Harry off guard.

"Me," someone said calmly, the voice sounded familiar, but slightly off, "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here Potter."

"But I thought Snape…"

"Severus?" the voice laughed, so it wasn't Snape. "Yes he does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?" the minute he stuttered Andrew got it, and he glared into the flames, that guy had been giving Andrew the creeps for months now, and now he knew why, he felt like an idiot.

Harry was confused, he thought Snape had tried to kill him, but Quirrell corrected him, it was he who was trying to kill Harry, but Hermione had knocked him over while trying to set fire to Snape's cloak, Snape was muttering a counter-curse.

"Snape was trying to __save__ me?" Harry asked, still trying to get his head around the fact that the roles he'd put Snape and Quirrell into had been reversed.

"Of course," said Quirrell coolly, "why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really … he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor winning, he __did__ make himself unpopular … and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."

There was a snap of fingers. Andrew started looking around the room he was in, he had to find some way through the fire to help Harry, this was tormenting, the sense of feeling confined wasn't helping either.

"You're too nosy to live Potter." Quirrell taunted. "Scurrying around the school at Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

" _ _You__ let the troll in?" so Harry wasn't gagged or unconscious.

"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls; you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off, and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, or that Jedi friend of yours, that three headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly. Now wait quietly Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror. Then I'll deal with you, then the Jedi."

 _"_ _(_ _ _Yeah, you'll deal with me soon alright, Quirrell__ _,)"_ Andrew thought darkly.

Quirrell started mumbling to himself, Harry speaking every now and again to try and distract Quirrell.

 _"_ _(_ _ _Maybe the Force can help me through the fire__ _,)"_

Andrew heard Harry fall over and started to worry again, he decided to try out his theory, but on the purple fire, it worked. He was about to make his way through the black flames when Quirrell spoke again.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me Master!" he cried.

"Use the boy … Use the boy …" a high, cold voice answered.

"Yes, Potter come here!" Quirrell clapped his hands. "Look into the Mirror and tell me what you see." After a few minutes of silence, Quirrell got impatient. "Well? What do you see?"

"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore, I-I've won the House Cup for Gryffindor." Andrew could tell he lied, but could Quirrell?

"Get out of my way!" Quirrell snapped.

"He lies … He lies …" the high voice said.

"Potter, come back here!" Quirrell shouted, Andrew wasn't sure what to do. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?"

"Let me speak to him … face to face …" the high voice commanded.

"Master, you are not strong enough!" he sounded concerned.

"I have strength enough … for this …" Andrew wasn't overly convinced, but readied himself to move in, he pulled out his wand and slid it into his lightsaber, not taking any care to ensure that the click wasn't heard.

"Harry Potter …" the voice whispered "See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapour … I have form only when I can share another's body … but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds …"

Andrew tuned the creepy voice out then, he needed to concentrate, he reached into the Force and pushed into the middle of the flames, willing them to part and let him through, and then he made a dash and was through as the flames closed behind him.

"SEIZE HIM!" Andrew looked up into a chalky white face with red eyes, it was looking straight at Harry and grabbing his wrist, and Andrew spoke, which caught its attention, Quirrell released Harry with a scream.

"Lord Voldemort I presume," Andrew said questioningly "I'd say it's an honour," he ignited his lightsaber "if I had the slightest amount of respect for you."

"I'll deal with you later," he hissed and went for Harry, only to find Harry being pulled back by Andrew with the help of the Force.

"I think you want to deal with me now," Andrew taunted, Quirrell turned his body to face him, snapped his fingers and several figures made of shadow emerged from nothingness, each sporting two curved blades.

"Stay behind me, Harry," Andrew ordered as the nearest assailant took a swing at his head, Andrew blocked it easily and slashed through the shadows chest, making it disappear, the Jedi then went to kick another in the head, only for his foot to pass right through, the creature dissipated and reformed behind Andrew's back. It slashed at Andrew's back, cutting him across the shoulder blades.

Andrew rolled forward, turning to face the remaining four creatures. "( _Okay, kicking doesn't work, punching probably won't either,_ )" he thought to himself, feeling blood trickling down his back. "( _Their blades cut like the real thing, meaning they can kill if given the chance._ )" Another lunged at him, he side-stepped the attack, spun and swung his blade easily through the hips of his attacker, leaving three, one of which was going for Harry.

Behind him, Quirrell shot lightning from his fingertips, Andrew sensed it coming and spun swiftly, catching the attack with his lightsaber, as he completed his spin, he redirected the lightning at the shadow which was creeping towards Harry, the electricity pierced through the creature from back to front and caused it to explode.

The remaining two shadows attempted to attack the Jedi at the same time, hoping to simply overpower him, however they had poor timing, they took turns trying to attack and were no match for Andrew's Force assisted speed, he blocked one, then parried the other with ease. Quirrell took another opportunity to shoot lightning at the Padawan from behind, catching him where he had already been cut, one of the shadows took the chance and tried to run the boy through, but he just managed to dive and roll between them, cutting the legs from the one on his left.

As it floundered on the ground, Andrew slowly got to his feet, his clothing smoking slightly. The last standing shadow cracked him on the back of his head with the hilt of its blade, dazing him. Harry then shot sparks into the shadow, making it stagger while Andrew turned and severed its head. The one on the floor grew some new legs and was just standing up when Andrew ended its existence with the same move.

Andrew then started gagging and gasping for air. Quirrell was holding one hand out at the Jedi's neck, using magic to choke the boy, the same way a Sith would use the Force. Harry charged forward and grabbed Quirrell by the throat, Quirrell screamed again and Andrew noticed his face blistering, Harry seemed to be suffering too.

As Harry and Quirrell both sank to their knees, Andrew felt the pressure on his neck lift, he too fell to one knee, gasping for breath and trying to shake his head clear, lack of air and loss of blood combined together to blur his vision. He gritted his teeth. "Harry? DUCK!" as Harry fell more than ducked out of the way, Andrew threw his lightsaber, it arched through the air, spinning around and around, until the tip embedded itself in Quirrell's chest. "The safety's off!" Andrew yelled, Harry got the idea, gripped the hilt and pulled it out, spinning once, he easily took Quirrell's head off.

Voldemort's spirit hissed its way out of Quirrell's corpse and fled, passing through Harry's chest and knocking the boy to the floor, Andrew's lightsaber clattered along the stone floor to its master's feet, deactivating as it went. Andrew plucked his weapon off the ground and hauled himself to his feet.

"Yeah, you run ' _ _My Lord'__ _,_ I look forward to our next encounter," Andrew muttered, and then he looked over Harry's unconscious form. "Thanks Harry, you saved my life and finished off Quirrell, now we can only wait until Dumbledore gets here to get us out."

It was then that Andrew felt a sharp pain in the back of his skull and heard something dripping behind him; he reached his hand up to the back of his head and felt something wet. Stumbling to his feet he fought to stay awake "( _One of those creatures bludgeoned the back of my head_ _ _)"__ he thought and examined his hand, it was soaked in blood. He started pacing but was becoming more drowsy by the second, he knew he was in trouble from blood loss.

When he was on the verge of passing out the flames died out and, quickly, Andrew hoisted Harry into a fireman's lift and started carrying him out, only to be stopped, by Dumbledore.

"I'll take him from here Andrew, you've done well," Dumbledore said, noticing the body of Quirrell and the blood that Andrew had trailed around the room.

"Come along, you need the hospital wing as much as Harry." Andrew simply nodded and followed, leaning on the arm that Dumbledore offered, while Harry was placed on a stretcher and levitated out.

It took a few minutes, but Andrew got to the ward before collapsing, and woke up about three hours later with a headache, bandages around his head and chest.

Three days later Andrew, Ron and Hermione received word that Harry had woken up, it took a bit of arguing, on both sides of the door, and even a half-hearted threat from Andrew, but eventually the three of them were allowed to see Harry for five minutes, partially because Andrew had was due for a change of dressing anyway.

"Morning sleeping beauty," he joked as he sat on the bed next to Harry and grinned, Harry grinned back, the bandage that Pomfrey had insisted Andrew wear for a couple of days made him look slightly comical especially with his braid poking through two of the strands.

While Madam Pomfrey unwrapped Andrew's head, they just sat around, talking about what had happened, Harry told them what happened after walking through the black fire, Andrew helping as much as he could with his point of view and Ron and Hermione told Harry the rumours that had been going around, which Andrew had been tuning out. As the matron got to removing Andrew's shirt to change the bandages around his chest, Hermione became quite interested in a pair of robins nesting outside the window.

They debated on weather or not Dumbledore had intended for Harry, and maybe Andrew too, to face Voldemort, and Ron explained that Gryffindor had lost to Ravenclaw in the last Quidditch match of the season. Shortly after Ron mentioned the end-of-year feast Pomfrey finished changing Andrew's bandages, saying his back would probably have a scar, that cut had been particularly deep, but he shouldn't need any new dressings after the ones she had just applied. Then she kicked Ron, Hermione and Andrew out of the hospital.

The next evening Andrew, Ron and Hermione saved a seat for Harry, he arrived alone, but was watched like a hawk by Madam Pomfrey, she honestly could be quite the buzzard at times, but Andrew couldn't fault her for it.

Harry sat next to Andrew with Ron and Hermione sat across the table, Dumbledore stood up to make his speeches and the Hall went silent.

"Another year gone!" he said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were … you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts …" at those words a few people sniggered, while Andrew just gave the Headmaster a pointed look, which didn't escape the man's notice.

"Now as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points," there was a round of polite applause from the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables and a lot of sneers from the Slytherins, "in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two points," again more applause, this time a few Gryffindors joined in, "Ravenclaw have four hundred and twenty six," more enthusiastic applause "and Slytherin, five hundred and twenty-two." This was the only point of the evening that Slytherin made any noise.

"Yes, yes, well done Slytherin," Dumbledore said after they had calmed down, "however, recent events much be taken into account. And I have a few last-minute points to dish out."

The Hall was dead quiet now. "First, to Mr Ronald Weasley … for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

The Gryffindors cheered for Ron since he'd just gotten them into third place by ten points.

After things quieted down Dumbledore started again. "Second, to Miss Hermione Granger … for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." The Gryffindors were speechless but applauding and cheering Hermione, who had burst into tears, anyway.

"Third, to Mr Andrew Payne … for refusing to give in, when all hope seemed lost, for giving his blood, sweat and even perhaps a tear or two, to help those in need, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." Andrew was nearly deafened by his fellow Gryffindors, but he merely bowed to them, trying not to wince, and continued to listen, Gryffindor were now in second, but Dumbledore wasn't finished.

"Fourth, to Mr Harry Potter …" Dumbledore said after things quieted down and he could be heard, at the mention of Harry's name the Hall went deathly quiet "… for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points." If Andrew thought he nearly lost his hearing for his award, he was certain he'd lost it completely for Harry's, Gryffindor were now tied with Slytherin, and his new hearing problem aside, Andrew couldn't help wishing that Dumbledore had awarded one more point to any of them.

Dumbledore raised his hand and the hall fell silent again … eventually. "There are all kinds of courage," he said with a smile, "it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points … to Neville Longbottom."

A lot of things happened at once, Neville was shocked to have actually scored a single point for Gryffindor, let alone _ten_ , the Gryffindor table exploded into cheers, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw joined in since it meant the downfall of Slytherin, and Malfoy looked torn between shock, dismay and polite admiration. The only Slytherin who wasn't looking totally miserable was Starr, he just looked bored.

"Which means," Dumbledore yelled over the noise, "we need a little change of decoration." In an instant the green banners changed to red, it was amazing, Harry was over the moon, the points that he, Hermione and Neville had lost were obviously forgotten and practically everyone in the room was dancing in celebration.

When the exam results came in everyone in the year was pleased to find that they'd passed, and it was time for the difficult part of the year, packing everything up and saying 'goodbye' to friends. Andrew was actually surprised to find that he wasn't permitted to use magic outside of school, but never mind.

They were having a good time on the train, trading wizard robes for muggle clothing, Andrew spent a good half-an-hour trying to decide weather to wear his Jedi robes or just a T-shirt and jeans, and eventually he opted for the shirt and jeans so that he could blend in.

"I guess that I'll see you guys in September?" Andrew asked.

"I'll ask my Mum about you three staying during the summer, I'll send you an owl." Ron answered.

"Thanks, I'll need something to look forward to." Said Harry.

"Well if you think I can keep Snowfire away from Hedwig then I have no idea how you passed the exams," Andrew joked with a slight nudge to Harry's shoulder.

"How's your back doing?" Hermione asked with a hint of worry.

"Not too bad, the skin's stopped feeling tight and Ron told me earlier that the scar's barely noticeable anyway." Andrew answered.

When they got into the muggle world they instantly heard shouting.

"There he is Mum, there he is, look" it was Ron's little sister Ginny.

"Be quiet Ginny, and it's rude to point." Mrs Weasley said. "Busy year?" she asked the four of them.

"Very, thanks for the fudge and jumper, Mrs Weasley." Harry told her.

"Yeah, thanks for those, the other Padawans thought I looked weird, but I wore the Weasley jumper with pride," said Andrew beaming.

"Oh it was nothing dears," she answered.

"Andrew! Over here!" Mel was shouting while trying to get through the crowd, in the end she decided she'd go over them and Force jumped to Andrew's side.

"That was bloody brilliant!" Ron said, only to be scolded by his mother for his language.

"How are you young Payne?" Master Bailo asked.

"Fine Master," Andrew answered with a bow.

"Mum, can I be a pain…" Ron started.

"No you can't, I'm A. Payne!" Andrew interrupted.

Ron blinked at him, Jarod signed from Dela's side and Mel swatted Andrew's arm before everybody got the joke and, at the very least, cracked a smile.

The Dursley's turned up then, saying that they were waiting to take Harry home, he left, hinting that he'd be tormenting Dudley with threats of using magic on him and, saying his goodbyes, Andrew left for the Jedi temple.


	8. Year 1 Summer Holiday

**Chapter 8 – Year 1 Summer Holiday**

"So, who's driving?" Andrew asked as they got to the entrance of King's Cross. Jarod tossed the keys to Andrew and he got the idea. "Awesome, hey Harry!" Andrew called, tossing his friend his Holo-com. "Keep in touch okay?"

"How does it work?" Harry asked, Jarod sighed and took the device back.

"I'll have one posted to you with an instruction manual," the Jedi Master said gently, "this one is programmed in our systems with Andrew's name."

The Dursley's were almost ready to go, Vernon scowling at Harry to hurry up. Mel levitated Andrew's trunk into the boot of the car while everyone else got in and quickly joined the Masters in the back seat as Andrew started the engine.

Harry's Uncle nearly hit them as he pulled out and into the road, but Andrew managed to avoid an accident by shifting into flight mode. The look of shock on Dudley's face when he saw the car transform into a shuttle was priceless, Andrew gave one final wave to Harry and took to the sky.

When they got back to the temple Andrew and Mel unpacked his things, he had been worried about that, he wanted to know where everything was without other Padawans seeing titles like "A Beginners Guide To Transfiguration" or "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi". It turned out that Jarod had considered that and had assembled a cabinet in Andrew's room.

Once all of his school things were put away, and the doors shut and locked, Andrew and Mel went and had a sparring match, which Andrew won. After that Jarod wanted to know what had happened involving the Stone, Dumbledore had sent a letter explaining, but the details were sketchy at best. So Andrew told him everything, about finding Fluffy asleep, about the Devil's Snare, the flying keys, the chess game, the potions puzzle and finally the torment of hearing Harry being threatened by Quirrell and Andrew forcing himself through the black fire to assist Harry.

By the time Andrew had finished the blow-by-blow details of his fight with the shadows and how Harry and Andrew had worked together to kill Quirrell, leading to Voldemort's spirit fleeing once again, it was time for dinner, which turned out to be a party of sorts to welcome home the missed prankster.

The next morning Andrew and Mel were told they had the day to themselves, so they went for a walk around London. It was a beautifully sunny day and Andrew loved every minute of it. Birds were singing, kids were playing in the park, Andrew and Mel joined in a friendly game of football with some muggle kids to pass the time and then went to Dominoes for lunch.

"Mmm, I miss junk food sometimes," Mel sighed as she swallowed a mouthful of pepperoni pizza.

"Yeah, needing to stay in great shape can be a drag at times," Andrew agreed, clinking glasses with Mel.

On the way back though something went wrong. As they were walking past the Bank of England, there were police cars everywhere and gunshots came from inside.

"I knew today was going too perfectly," Andrew said as he started making his way towards the officer in charge, "is there anything we can do to help, Officer?" he asked when he got there.

"Yeah, you can stay the hell out of the way kid!" he yelled.

"Forgive me, Officer, but we're Jedi, we've been trained for situations like this." Mel responded, all of them ducking as a shot rang out and pierced a tyre, bursting it loudly.

"Jedi huh?" he asked. "Ever dealt with hostage situations?"

"Yeah, always passed with flying colours, only difference here is there's no test dummies, but we always got them through in one piece," Mel answered, the officer looked convinced.

"We've got sixteen people in there, six workers and ten customers, four of which are children and all of which have a live grenade in their hands." He explained.

"How many gunmen?" Andrew asked, not really caring that a news crew was catching every word.

"Seven, two with pistols, three with sub-machine rifles, one with a flame-thrower and one with…" a bullet ricocheted off the bonnet of his car and the police officers ducked down "… a sniper rifle." He finished.

Mel smirked and ignited her lightsabers. "This is where the fun begins," she said and they both charged forward. The sniper sent off another shot, which she deflected and fire spewed out of another window, aimed at Andrew, he simply held it at bay with the Force while Mel dealt with the sniper, cutting his weapon to pieces and throwing him through the window and down the steps.

The police cuffed him and pushed him into a car.

The flame-thrower turned on Mel. Andrew took the chance and hurled his lightsaber, it nicked the gas tank on the criminal's back, all of his fuel spilled out and caused the stream of flame to die out. Realising that he was defenceless, the pyromaniac lifted his hands into the air and gave up. Mel lifted two fingers from her right hand blade and gently lifted him out of the window, depositing him in the pavement where he was cuffed.

 _"_ _(_ _ _Two down, five to go__ _,)"_ Andrew thought.

The two Padawans made their way inside, keeping to the shadows, they could clearly see the five guys, one of them talking into his radio.

"Laposky," he growled. "Daniels. One of you answer me, what the frack are you doing out there!"

"It's gone quiet outside," another one commented, looking like he was getting nervous. "You think they got arrested? Are the cops gonna storm the place?!"

"Cool it, Pitch!" a dark skinned man shouted, clearly sporting an itchy trigger finger.

"We gotta surrender before we all get killed!" Screamed Pitch, only for the man in charge to step out and shoot him in the back. The hostages all screamed into the tape covering their mouths.

"Anyone else wanna suggest surrender?" nobody answered him. "I didn't think so, they won't risk any of the hostages, they'll call soon with a negotiator any minute, and we bargain hostages for our freedom. Of course if they refuse, we'll start shooting our distinguished guests." he leered at one of the children, who got his meaning and started to cry.

"Enough of this," Andrew muttered quietly to Mel. "I go this way, you go that way?" he asked, motioning with his head, Mel nodded and they sprang forward, a hail of bullets greeting them. People were screaming, the gunmen were shouting, Andrew had two of them and Mel had three.

Taking them down was dead easy, the machine guns were cut in half to make them useless, bullets from the handguns were melted on contact with the lightsabers and within minutes all five gunmen were unconscious, having either been thrown into a wall or had a desk chair thrown into them. That plus a few of them had minor lightsaber wounds.

"Well, that's everyone; I'll get the police to take care of the grenades," Andrew said as he took of running. He trotted down the stairs and told the head officer that it was all clear inside.

Inside the bank, Mel was busy easing the tape off the hostages mouths. "Take it easy, bomb disposal will be here soon and they'll take care of those grenades, I promise you'll be safe soon."

"Thank you so much!" one mother cried as Mel gently took the tape off her daughter's mouth and dabbed at the little girl's tear streaked face.

After about an hour going from one explosive to the next, all of the hostages were safe, outside, wrapped in a blanket and speaking to a therapist.

"Think they'll be okay?" Mel asked, brushing off her jacket.

"The kids will be having nightmares for a few months, London's therapists will be kept busy for years I suspect." Andrew sighed. "But they say that time heals all wounds, even psychological ones."

Mel nodded and stepped into the street, her eyes glued to a mother trying desperately to comfort her two children as one screamed and the other cried in terror and relief.

There was the sudden sound of a horn blaring out, a screech of tyres and Andrew crying out to Mel, but it was too late, a taxi drove right into her and her body broke through the windscreen, several shards of glass ripping through her clothes and breaking her skin open.

"MEL!" Andrew screamed as he ran to her. "Why weren't you watching the road!" he roared at the cab driver.

"She just came outta nowhere!" he screamed back, having no idea what to do he just sat frozen in shock. Andrew drew his lightsaber and started cutting his fellow Padawan out of what was left of the window.

"Does the engine still work!" the Jedi demanded. The driver tried his engine and it rattled to life. "Get us to the Jedi temple!" he ordered.

"No charge!" the driver answered, Andrew glared at him for implying he might have even _thought_ of charging them when he was the reason they needed a ride.

One of the police cars escorted them, using the siren to move traffic out of the way.

Andrew dived out of the car and up the stairs to the temple to scream for help while the police officer booked the taxi driver for driving without due care and attention. Two Jedi Masters came down the stairs to gently carry Mel out of the taxi to carry her to the halls of healing.

Andrew was left pacing frantically outside the halls as his and Mel's Masters walk calmly to him.

"What happened?" Jarod asked, Dela was keeping her cool but there was no hiding the worry in her eyes.

Andrew kept pacing as he explained the bank robbery, how the two Padawans had dealt with it easily enough, and finally how Mel had stepped out into traffic, her eyes focused on the traumatised children, to be hit by a passing taxi.

"The idiot's been booked for speeding too!" Dela snapped, her nerves at their breaking point. Just then Zan Axfow stepped out, not looking happy.

"How is she Zan?" Jarod asked, placing a hand on Dela's shoulder and patting Andrew's.

"She lost a lot of blood as soon as the glass pierced her body, more still on the drive here." Axfow answered. "You did the right thing bringing her here, Andrew, you'd have taken longer trying to get to a hospital."

"I sense a 'but'" Andrew answered.

"You're right, we're not as well stocked as a proper surgical operating theatre, and between that and the recent nationwide blood shortage, we've run out of Melanie's blood type." Zan sighed. "I need you and Dela to round up some blood donors of her type, here's a list of potential candidates."

"Take me!" Andrew almost snapped. "I know the database like the back of my hand, and me and Mel share the same blood-type!"

"That's a very noble gesture Andrew, but we need to consider.." Jarod started.

"Screw that, Master!" Andrew shouted. "Every second we spend debating it, brings Mel one second closer to death! Now hook me up!"

Jarod, Dela and Zan frowned a little at the Padawan's outburst. "Very well, Jarod, Dela, go and look for more donors while I cross-match Andrew to be safe," Zan ordered, Andrew was about to argue, "we may need more blood than you can give safely, Andrew, and I am _not_ going to kill one Padawan just to save another!"

Andrew let out a sigh and nodded, following the healing arts master into the halls.

He was laid on a bed next to Mel, she had clamps all over her, keeping her blood vessels from allowing any more blood to leave her system, Andrew himself winces as Master Axfow took a sample of his blood to cross-match with Mel. After a minute or two, he nodded and his Padawan was quick to push a needle into one of Andrew's arteries, pushing a needle on the other end of the tube into Mel's Vein.

Andrew watched from his bed, seeing as his and Mel's Masters came back and stood on the other side of a window to oversee Mel's surgery. Slowly and surely, the first of five shards of glass was removed from her left breast, it had punctured her lung and that had to be sutured closed, drained of a little internal bleeding and then inflated to restore its correct shape.

"That's one," commented one of the on-staff surgeons.

"We'll leave that one in her armpit until last, X-Rays showed that that one is superficial and it missed all the blood vessels." Zan answered.

Andrew tried to crane his neck but his head was pushed back down. "She's shirtless, Andrew," said the Padawan who was monitoring his condition, "please respect her modesty."

Andrew sighed and nodded, looking up at the ceiling. "How's she doing?" he asked.

"So far so good, we've gotten the main troublemaker and repaired her lung, now we're going after a shard near the liver." answered the surgeon, not taking her eyes off her work.

"How much danger is she in there?" Andrew asked.

"Not as much as you're thinking so relax, we don't need your heart rate getting high." Zan said calmly as he applied a Bacta patch over Mel's sutures to help them heal.

"Alright, retract that for me," the doctor asked her nurse, referring to Mel's liver, "and put a clamp on that tube, we've got enough blood for now." Andrew felt a slight tug on his arm as a clamp was closed on the tube coming from his arm and was then allowed to just hang from it.

There was a clink of glass as the second piece was removed. "Just muscular damage there, suture that for me nurse, I'll go after another piece."

"Yes doctor, P.G.A?" the nurse asked.

"No, PDS will do just fine, it's not all that serious." the doctor answered, moving to a shard in Mel's belly.

"Where exactly is that shard Doctor?" Dela's voice came over the intercom.

"Smack bang in the middle of her womb." Zan answered, causing Mel's Master to grow concerned.

"How severe is it?" Dela asked.

"It's not very deep, if you're concerned, she'll still be able to bare young," the doctor said, keeping a business-like tone.

"She'll be pleased to hear that," Dela sighed, causing Andrew to turn and look to her, "she's told me many times that she looks forward to being a mother some day."

Andrew nodded in understanding before his head was gently pushed back down again. "That's three done. I was mistaken, the tip was poking her womb but didn't pierce it, it's probably the shallowest piece in there."

A couple of the clamps on Mel's blood vessels were removed and she started bleeding from a few leaks, Andrew's clamp was removed to make up for the blood loss and he started to feel light-headed. Knowing exactly what Master Axfow would do if he said anything, he kept his mouth shut.

Once the forth shard was removed and Mel's kidney repaired, Zan decided to check on Andrew. "How are you feeling Andrew?" the boy's answer came back a little slurred. "Say that again?" he said, growing concerned and stepping away from Mel's table.

"I shed, I'm phine Mash-terr!" Andrew called out.

"Dammit! We've taken more than we should!" Zan cursed. "JAROD! Where are those donors!"

"The bottles are just coming in," Jarod answered over the intercom.

"Good, I want one hooked up to Melanie and one to Andrew, STAT!"

"Yes, Master," his Padawan answered with a nod, rushing around to do as he was told.

Shortly after that, Andrew blacked out, the next thing he knew he was drifting back to consciousness and it was dark outside.

"Gave me a scare there, my young Padawan," came the voice of his Master, Andrew groaned as he looked to his right to see Jarod with a slight frown on his head.

"Sorry, Master," Andrew said, almost out of reflex.

"You really should have said something when you started to feel light-headed," Jarod scolded, "Zan told you that he didn't want to risk killing you, just for the sake of saving Melanie."

"I didn't know if we had any more blood or not," Andrew mumbled, still feeling a little groggy. Jarod only deepened his frown and Andrew apologised again. "How is she?"

"She's expected to make a full recovery, and you should be fine by now, you gave three units of blood and received two in return, but Master Axfow wants to keep you both in over night on IV's" Jarod explained.

"Yes, Master, do you mind if I get some more sleep?" Andrew asked, Jarod nodded and watched over his student as he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. The Jedi Master then looked over Mel's chart, before he could try and decipher what any of it meant, Zan walked in.

"I'm expecting her to wake up in the morning," he said with a smile. "Has he woken up yet?" he asked, pointing to Andrew.

"Yes, and gone back to sleep," Jarod answered. "Don't worry, I've already told him off."

"Spoilsport!" Zan huffed. "I just don't understand what the hell he was thinking!"

"Shhhh!" Dela hissed, holding Mel's hand while she slept. "You'll wake one of them!"

"Let's all leave them to sleep, shall we?" Jarod suggested, gently prying Dela's hands from Mel's.

The next morning, Andrew woke up before Mel. He eased himself off the bed and placed his hand against her forehead. She felt just a little warm, but her heart rate monitor sounded normal, so he moved to get himself a glass of water and forgot that he himself was also hooked up to an IV drip. He hissed in pain as the needle was pulled inside his arm and the bottle stand rolled along the floor and crashed into Mel's bed with a loud clang.

She woke up with a start, looking around and wondering both where she was and how she got there. "Sorry about that," Andrew apologised, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"Andrew, what happened?" Mel asked, looking around. "How did we get into the halls of healing?"

"You don't remember the bank?" Andrew pressed.

"Yes, we broke up a robbery, saved a bunch of hostages," Mel answered slowly. "Then I was watching a mother and her two children … I don't remember anything after that."

"So that's why you didn't notice the taxi," Andrew said thoughtfully. "A speeding taxi hit you, you demolished the windscreen and ended up needing surgery."

Mel winced. "So that's why everything hurts!" she whined.

"You're lucky you didn't break any bones!" Dela scolded as she came in, hearing Mel complain. "How many times have I told you little one, you can't let the suffering of others take up all of your attention!"

"Yes, Master," Mel answered, lowering her head as memories flowed into her head and tears flowed from her eyes. Dela saw this and stepped over to sit on the edge of her bed, rubbing her back.

"I know that this is hard for you, and you know I will always be here to help you move passed it, but I'm also afraid, that one day the way you focus on suffering children is going to get you killed." she said, pulling her student tightly into her arms. "You're the nearest thing I have to a daughter Melanie, it would kill me if I lost you."

Mel was openly crying now. "You're the nearest thing I have to a mother, Master!" she cried, clinging to Dela's tunic.

Andrew took the time to pull the IV from his arm and leave the ladies to their tender moment. As soon as he stepped out of the room, he walked right into Master Axfow. "And who exactly said you could get out of bed?"

"Uhh," Andrew started, "Mel and Master Bailo are um, having a moment." he finished, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to the slowly closing door.

Zan shook his head and marched Andrew back into the room so that he could examine both the Padawans, once he was satisfied that they were both in good health, he discharged them.

Andrew asked Mel what she wanted to do and she suggested a sparring match to take her mind off her personal screw-up, Andrew agreed and they went to the exercise wing of the temple to square off against each other.

Mel struck first, with her reverse-grip right hand, Andrew blocked and ducked as she swiped with her forward-grip left hand. Andrew then back-flipped onto his hand and sprung back to create some distance, but Mel charged after him, keeping the pressure on Andrew as he kept backing up, then he dropped, spun and swept Mel's feet out from under her.

She Force pushed into the ground and sent herself flying across the room to land gracefully on her feet. "I swear Mel, you're part cat!" Andrew complained as he straightened up. He spun anti-clockwise and released his grip on his weapon, hurling his blade at Mel, she flipped her reverse-grip into a forward-grip and held both her weapons in an X to block the flying lightsaber. After it bounced off, Andrew called it back to his hand.

He dashed forward, using the Force to increase his speed, Mel tried to swing at him as he got close, but he parried both her blades, one after the other, then slammed his right hand into the floor, creating a Force push that sent Mel a foot into the air. Andrew straightened up and finished his combo with a swift spinning heel kick that sent Mel twelve feet across the room, she dropped her right hand blade as she tried to use that hand to break her fall and steady herself.

While she stayed crouched on one knee, she reached out her right hand to retrieve her weapon, but instead of it flying into her outstretched hand, it reignited and shot right at Andrew, attacking him mercilessly. He was managing to fend off the weapon but it was fighting a _lot_ more skill-fully than he could handle.

"Very impressive, Mel, but I think I should point out that we didn't lower our weapon settings and I'm starting to struggle here!" he cried out in alarm.

"That's not me!" Mel answered. "I was calling it _to_ me!"

Andrew suddenly realised that Mel was using Magic and didn't even realise it. He quickly looked around to confirm that they were alone and, straining to hold the rogue lightsaber back with one hand, released the catch holding his wand inside his own weapon. He caught his wand in his right hand, pointed the tip at Mel's lightsaber and screamed out, "FINITE!" the blade froze in mid-air and clattered to the ground.

Panting, Andrew deactivated his lightsaber and dropped to his knees. "I … am … going … to be … in _so_ much … trouble for that!" he wheezed.

"Why?" Mel asked, running over to retrieve her weapon.

"I'm not supposed to use magic outside of school," Andrew told her.

"Not ever to keep your head where it belongs?" she demanded. "I just wish I knew what the hell caused that!"

"That'll be my fault too," Andrew admitted, getting to his feet. "Master Cooper tried to warn me about it before I insisted on giving you my blood."

"You think you've made me a witch?" Mel asked, Andrew nodded.

"It's possible, I guess we'll find out soon enough."

The next morning, Jarod was going about his daily routine when Dumbledore appeared out of nowhere right in front of him. "Again, Albus? This is becoming a habit for you, my friend." Jarod complained.

"My apologies, Jarod, but I need to see Dela about young Melanie." Dumbledore answered.

"Follow me," Jarod said, turning and leading the way to his office. He pulled his Holo-com from his pocket and called Dela to meet them as soon as she could.

Once all three of them were sat in Jarod's office, Dumbledore began to explain. "The Ministry contacted me yesterday afternoon, asking me to investigate both a potential new muggle-born, and a confirmed case of underage magic." he told them.

"Andrew broke the law of the wizarding world?" Jarod demanded, amazed that his Padawan would do anything illegal.

"Yes and no, although the law states that students under the age of seventeen are not permitted to use magic outside of school, there are exceptions in life threatening circumstances." Dumbledore told them.

At this, the two Masters both pulled out their Holo-com devices and called their respective students to the office. In under a minute there was a knock on the door. "Come in you two." Jarod called out.

Andrew and Mel stepped in, looking worried, more so when they saw Dumbledore sat at Jarod's desk. "Okay, I know I'm in trouble, just tell me how much." Andrew sighed.

"Not to worry Andrew, this is just a polite warning visit for you, I'm mostly here for Miss Jacobs." Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Even though I used magic outside of school?" Andrew asked.

"To keep a rogue lightsaber from decapitating you? Absolutely!" Dumbledore chuckled lightly.

"I think I would like to hear an explanation of the facts, Andrew." Jarod said, sounding concerned, more so when Dumbledore mentioned the lightsaber.

"Well, I think it started when I offered my blood for Mel's operation," Andrew said, slumping down onto the sofa that Jarod used for late nights of work.

"Nothing serious I hope," Dumbledore said, this being the first he'd heard about it.

"I got hit by a car, long story," Mel answered.

"Well, me and Mel were sparring the next morning, I'd disarmed her of one of her blades and then it flew at me and started fighting for itself, soon enough we realised that Mel wasn't in control of the blade and I guessed it was magic. So I did the one thing I could think of, a counter-spell." Andrew explained.

Dumbledore nodded. "Which brings me to why I am here," he pulled an envelope from his robes and passed it to Master Bailo, it was a Hogwarts acceptance letter. "Given her age, I feel that Melanie should be in her second year, so I intend to come here everyday throughout the summer holiday, in order to get her caught up on her first year of lessons."

"So, um, I'm not in any trouble at all?" Andrew asked, raising his hand.

"No, the Ministry simply asked me to make you aware that you should try to avoid situations which place you in mortal danger." Dumbledore answered kindly.

"Uh, Professor, you _do_ realise what I do for a living, right?" Andrew said, barely containing his laughter.

"Yes, but it hopefully won't be everyday that you find yourself needing to use counter-spells to protect yourself." Dumbledore chuckled.

"So, um," Mel started, all eyes turning to her. "When do we start, Professor?"


End file.
